Legendary Sannins and the Order of the Phoenix
by Koulin
Summary: Naruto and Harry Potter crossover! The Legendary Sannins, currently at age 15, arrived at Hogwart's doorstep because of pure carelessness! Hilarious and, probably, a bit angst. R&R plz! Set in fifth year. Spoilers.
1. Carelessness

**The Sannins and the Order of the Phoenix**

**Naruto/ Harry Potter crossover**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Harry Potter, characters and stuff all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and JKR.**

_Um, about the last fan fiction I wrote (Akamaru's mind). Sorry I kind of ditched it and flew to this story, since I had "writer's block" going on in my previous story…I couldn't stop writing this though…hope you'll find it funny:) Reviews will increase the happiness in my life._

_WAIT! I NEED TO SAY A FEW WORDS BEFORE CHAPTER 1 BEGINS:_

_Thanks to two of my 'reviewers', I notice that from chapter 2 all the way to chapter 5, I've made a very stupid mistake: I've written the word 'tongue' as 'tough' and not even knowing it! Sheesh.... I tried to correct every 'tough' throughout all of my chapters though. So if you still see some 'tough's luring around, please tell me and I'll correct that too. THANKYOU!_

**Chapter 1: Carelessness**

With one swift movement, Tsunade had managed to snatch the potion out of Jiraiya's hand, while spilling droplets of it onto Orochimaru's shirt.

"Careful, you two." Orochimaru glared at them. Jiraiya snorted, "Watch who you're talking to, Orochi. It is the existence of this- (he pointed to Tsunade) –that made our live clearly miserable." He then flung his arm across the table with frustration, knocking the beaker full of frog's eyes and causing to sway dangerously on the table's edge.

"Watch it, idiot!" Tsunade hissed, "We won't want our sensei to find us fidgeting his stuff, do we?"

The legendary sannins weren't as mature as we thought they would be now back when they were still teenagers. Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade, currently 15 year-old, had unfortunately still not took their advanced ninja training seriously (in Orochimaru's case, in destroying his homeland), while Sarutobi had a rather hard time controlling their behavior. He was yet quite lucky that his students hadn't managed to explode his private lab in half (Jiraiya looked rather frustrated at this thought).

Jiraiya walked to Tsunade carrying a whole bunch of dried owl guts. "Cool, isn't it?" He beamed, showing her the brown little lumps he was holding. He smirked when Tsunade made a disgusted face. "Put that away!" She hissed through clenched teeth. "As if I would care." Came the reply.

To Tsunade's horror, Jiraiya casually dumped the stuff into a nearby cauldron and started stirring with a stick like a witch. Orochimaru approached the colorless Tsunade, glanced at the now bubbling cauldron and frowned, "Are you sure of what you are doing?" He looked up at Jiraiya, who was now grinning from ear to ear. Tsunade gulped as the cauldron started to shake.

"What can it possibly do?" Jiraiya shrugged, "I mean, it's not like it can blow us up or anything can it?"

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade bellowed, eyes still glued to the violent liquid steaming inside the cauldron, "Just turn and look."

Jiraiya turned, just in time to see the liquid smoking rather seriously. Before he would even utter a word, the liquid exploded into think, wet, purple mist which surrounded all three of the Sannins with such speed that Orochimaru thought he'd suddenly went blind. He could hear both his teammates and himself coughing like mad, while he watched in horror as his own hands started to fade, and later on so did his entire body.

Tsunade screamed, yet all Orochimaru could hear were the hissing of the whirling smoke and his own heartbeat. His eyelids started to close and soon his vision was completely blank.


	2. A school and a castle

This chapter will be quite long. I've wasted more than three pieces of paper just to write the draft. TT Hope you would enjoy my story while I hope I would enjoy your reviews:)

Chapter 2: A school and a castle

Professor McGonagall hurried up the stone steps, passed by Umbridge ('Hem, hem') with a slight snarl and arrived in front of the golden gargoyle.

"Exploding gumballs." (A/N: XD)

The gargoyle slide open, revealing a spiral staircase. She climbed in, went up the staircase and knocked on the door. "Come in," came Dumbledore's voice. Professor McGonagall greeted him hastily and went straight on to the subject.

"Filch the caretaker had just discovered three unconscious teenagers around the age of fifteen, lying right in front of the school gate." She said, quite out of breath.

"Are they students from Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked in concern. "No sir…I don't think so," McGonagall's eyes narrowed as if to think, "Well, their clothed were quite…uncommon, I'd say. They do wear robes, though not the ones we wear. I doubt if they even came from the Muggle world too."

Dumbledore started to look worried. "Are you sure they aren't Muggles? You know the fashion in their world changes quite rapidly."

McGonagall thought about that. "Anyways…they are now under the care of Madam Pomfrey." She added with a swift nod.

" Mind if I pay those children a visit?"

"Certainly."

The moment Tsunade woke up gave her the shock of her life. First, the room she and her teammates were lying was definitely NOT Konohagakure; Second, the adults peering over her were definitely weirdoes; Third, the weirdoes were definitely NOT Shinobis due to the fact that they were wearing the oddest costumes she had ever seen.

Without thinking, she jabbed her hand into the handle of her kunai and hurled it towards the strangers. They dodged it just in time (with a surprised shriek from Madam Pomfrey) to see the kunai flew past them with great speed and stuck itself to the ceiling with a threatening 'thud'.

Nobody was able to speak for a moment (despite the still-unconsciousness of Orochimaru and Jiraiya). Tsunade paused, who then gave a glass-breaking scream and started to shake Orochimaru's shoulder rather franticly. His eyes snapped open and he yelped in pain.

"Tsunade! What the h—"

But before he could even finish his sentence, his snake-like eyes brushed upon the three strangers standing before him, eyeing himself with interest. Orochimaru glanced at them with great suspicion, and dug his hand into robe until he could feel the metal handle of his kunai. Then, being the calmest of all, he raised his voice and asked, "Who are you?"

Neither the adults seem to hear or understand what he was saying, so he asked again, making sure his voice was clear enough for them to hear, "Who are you?"

With great disappointment, the result was the same. One of the adults raised an eyebrow while the second hung a puzzled expression on her face. Yet, top Orochimaru's surprise, the last one smiled as if he knew something that they don't. Without another warning, he walked closer to the two conscious ninjas (Jiraiya's still unconscious), took out a stick (at least to Tsunade's opinion inside her head) and muttered something under his breath while tapping each of them once with the stick on their head. Jiraiya's eyes popped open as he felt something hard tapped his forehead and sat bolted up right and shrieked.

Jiraiya held his head, feeling a rush of cool air inside his brain and moaned slightly. But disappearing as quickly as it had came, he finally opened his eyes again feeling totally normal as if nothing had happened.

He turned to his teammates and asked, "Where am I? Or in other words, where are we?" Orochimaru merely shrugged. Tsunade gave a nervous gulp and pointed shakily at three figures.

For a moment Jiraiya sat, staring at the grown ups as though they were creatures from the Forest of Death, he gave a little yelp and for the next moment he was shuffling furiously through his pockets for shurikans when one of the adults spoke, causing him to jump, "Where are you children from, may I kindly ask?" The oldest among them asked with a comforting smile. All three ninjas looked at each other in surprise. Somehow…the language he spoke was not Japanese, although they could understand it quite as clearly. "We-we are from—" Tsunade managed to start, but quickly covered her mouth with shock. How in the world did she manage to speak some sort of unknown language?

She turned her head to look at her teammates and was not surprised to see the same expression hanging on their faces.

"We-we are from…Konohagakure." She managed to choke out the words, trying very hard to ignore the strange accent she was making.

"Kono…what?" The short woman raised an eyebrow.

"Konohagakure…and-and Konoha for short," Jiraiya butted in, unable to keep quiet, "It's the village hidden in the Leaf…also known as the country of fire."

"Konoha? Hmm…a very nice country it is," The old man smiled and nodded, although the Sannins knew very well that he had never heard of such a village before.

"…Can you tell us who you are and how did you end up here?" For the first time, the tall woman spoke. She had a stern look and a stern voice that made Jiraiya flinch. Orochimaru spoke up, "We are Jounins." When he received rather puzzled looks, he added quickly, "It's a type of ninja, like a journeymen." _Although we refused the stupid green vests_, he thought with a smirk.

The short woman, who seemed to be a nurse, gasped with shock. The tall woman raised an eyebrow and yet again, the old man continued to smile, this time with satisfaction.

" And as for how we ended up here," Tsunade continued after Orochimaru (although she had no idea where was 'here'), and glared furiously and Jiraiya, who found his fingers quite interesting. She then told them the whole story with one breath. When she had finished she was clearly gasping for breath.

Professor McGonagall glanced towards Jiraiya; thinking about the owl guts in Tsunade's story and frowned slightly. Snape would not like to have him as his student.

Dumbledore nodded with satisfaction, a broad smile spreading across his bearded face. "Yes, a really interesting story you got there," he chuckled, "Reminds me when I was little." He gave McGonagall and Poppy a nod and continued, "Since this Village—Konoha— is quite unfamiliar to me, my fellow teachers and I decided to let you stay until we have found and contacted someone from your homeland to take you back home. – (He bowed at the three ninjas)—And welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Before Dumbledore went out of the hospital wing, he turned and asked, "May I ask your names?"

Jiraiya pointed at himself, then at Orochimaru and Tsunade, "I'm Jiraiya, this is Orochimaru and Tsunade." He said. The teachers looked puzzled at such long names (especially Orochimaru's), yet Dumbledore kept his smile and walked out of the door.


	3. August 30th

_Oh god. I've just figured out that 'journeymen ninja' is actually Chuunins…actually I knew it all along, but for some reason my brain wasn't functioning well yesterday T-T. Sorry if I made you get all confused and stuff…I'm gonna correct my mistake in this chapter (and hopefully in the other chapters too)._

_On with the story…_

Chapter 3: August 30th

Jiraiya couldn't believe it. He was in a wizarding school. In a magical world full of goblins and witches and wizards that he thought only exists in books. The first thing he wanted to do is to meet a wizard, and since he just did, he couldn't even walk properly on the following day.

On August 30th, one day before Hogwart's start-of-term, Professor McGonagall gave all three them a tour around school. When they approached the second floor, Jiraiya looked out of the huge window and squealed, "Oh my god! Is that…is that a _dragon_?"

Tsunade's eyes popped open while Orochimaru gave a rare gasp. Yet McGonagall did not find this amusing. "Illegal dragons, I'd say," She snorted and her lips were quite thin, "I'll have a word with Hagrid about this."

"Hagrid?" Tsunade asked curiously.

"He's a gamekeeper before, though he's now the teacher of Care of Magical Creatures. Quite huge for a half human and half giant, he is." Professor McGonagall answered.

When they walked pass the Great Hall, Professor suddenly stopped dead as if she had been Stunned (Jiraiya nearly walked right into her). "Oh for Marlin's sake!" She exclaimed. She muttered something about her old age before continuing, "I've forgotten to you the most important thing in Hogwarts. –(She pointed to the school crest at the far end of the Great Hall)—That, is our school crest, which, as you can see, is divided into four, each one represents a House: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw…"

The ninjas went on listening to Professor McGonagall's long speech about the history of the four houses with interest (Tsunade and Orochimaru that is, while else Jiraiya's excited pair of eyes fell upon the Headmaster's tall chair in the middle of the Hall). After she'd finished talking, Orochimaru thought about what she had said.

_Slytherin…_

He clicked his long, reptile-like tongue and smiled.

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It was 2pm in the mourning and still none of the Chuunins had slept.

"Do you think that old hag's doing the right thing?" Jiraiya's voice broke the stillness (and the silence). "Don't call her 'old hag' Jiraiya," Tsunade snapped, "Anyways…well, I don't like her idea either, I mean, why can't we just sleep here in this guest room? It's not like it's dangerous, is it?"

Jiraiya sprang up from his bed, "Yeah, what's the point? I mean –" He cleared his throat, trying to mimic Professor McGonagall's voice, "—_'I've just had a discussion with the Headmaster and we both agreed to sort you into these Houses as well. That way you could sleep in the dormitory with other students and, well, who knows? Maybe you can even make friends with them.'_ See what I mean? Sleeping with total strangers! I don't think we're quite suitable to do so."

"Yes, you're quite right," Tsunade smirked, "who know what'll_ you _do to your roommates…" "Shut up," Jiraiya flushed, "I'm not _that_ perverted, am I?" Tsunade simply laughed.

"Actually," Orochimaru spoke for the first time. His soft, silky voice had clearly startled the other two, "I'm not that nervous about the Sorting as much as you do, I'm rather worried about the classes we're going to attend."

At this point Jiraiya slumped back onto his bed, frustrated, "Oho. Right. Can't believe I forgot. That old hag actually told us to learn with wizards and witches." Yet this was the only thing Tsunade did not agree with, "Well I think it's fun, you can learn more about magic," She rebelled, "Although something worries me. What if we cannot perform magic? Although I know some of the subjects does not require magic, yet most of them do…" She grimaced at this thought.

"Cheer up," Orochimaru said, "Haven't you guys heard about what she said after we had that health test thingy back in the hospital wing yesterday? She said we aren't Muggles or Squibs —if that's what they call it —we _can_ do magic! Although we could never have the opportunity to do magic above OWL —if that's what they call it too —Ninja arts and Magic are similar in some ways you know, although Ninja art requires more practice."

"Yes! That means we can fly on brooms!" Jiraiya said excitedly. "Actually Jiraiya, we can always fly as long as we have other objects as company," Tsunade said, "Orochi invented an advanced-charka-control method to push us up into the air. Although it wastes too much charka to do so…"

Jiraiya glanced towards the clock, "Damn. It's three o'clock in the mourning. We'd better get some sleep."

"Ugh, I hate this kind of bed. It's so high!" Tsunade groaned and hung on the her sheets for dear life as if she would fall off the bed, "I'd prefer sleeping on the floor."

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_Not much going on in this chapter, I'm sure it'll be better in the next one. Reviews will brighten my day guys :)_


	4. To feel welcomed

_Yay! Chapter four up! Please read and review!_

P.S: Gama Bunta will soon be mentioned somewhere in this chapter, if you don't know who he, or in other words, it, is, then I'd better tell you now. Gama Bunta is the giant, bad tempered toad which Naruto had managed to summon during his fall down the cliff (Chapter 95: A Chance Encounter…!)

_Now on with the story…_

Chapter four: Jiraiya and Tsunade's Pov 

The Chuunins had never gotten quite nervous before since the match of the Chuunin exam. To Jiraiya, the student's uniform of Hogwarts were just… well, extraordinary. The young ninjas stared at those black robes as though they were walking garbage bags.

"_That's_ supposed to be uniforms?" Jiraiya snorted. Tsunade shrugged, "Can't blame them. After all they're wizards and witches right?"

Orochimaru looked around. Besides the strange black robes the students were wearing, he had also noticed that some of them carried brooms on their shoulders, while others carried cages that contained unmistakably, owls and cats. Orochimaru pushed pass the hurrying students who all appeared to be cramming into the Great Hall. He arrived at the front door and peered outside. On the green lawn stood at least a dozen carriages, each pulled by mysterious, dragon-like horses. They stretched their huge bat-like wings and blinked with rather scary eyes. Orochimaru shook his head and looked away.

**Jiraiya **

I hate these students. They were all manner-less brats. Pointing and whispering at me and my teammates, and just who do they think they are? I really want to stick a kunai into their mouths!

But just when I was about to do so, Tsunade nudged me on the hips and jerked her head towards her left. I followed her gaze and spotted that old hag again. This time she was mentioning for us to follow her, and so we did.

We entered the Great Hall, which was now packed with students, chattering loudly among their friends. The Hall seemed bigger than we last visited! Candles were lit among the walls; some mysterious yet magical sparks were dancing above our heads. I glanced towards the ceiling and gave a tiny shriek.

The whole ceiling was the color of bluish-black, which was packed with shiny, twinkling stars and silent clouds.

_Was I simply looking at the night sky?_

My thoughts were interrupted as my eyes darted across the long table at the very front.

That tall chair in which I kept on staring at was now occupied by the headmaster; he'd never stopped smiling.

A seat to his left was empty. Bet it was for Professor McGonagall.

Next to the empty seat sat a mouse. No, wait. That was not a mouse, but a rather tiny man whose chin barely reached the table surface even though he'd managed to stack several books onto his seat.

To that mouse's —I mean man's —left sat some other teachers in which I did not know.

Now to the Headmaster's left… Holy —was that Gama Bunta! No wait…no, that's not him… instead it was a really, err, plumped woman who dressed entirely in pink. She had toad-like eyes which resembled Gama Bunta, and a sick, wide smile that resembled of a total baka. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the man sitting beside her, who had greasy hair and dressed in black, was undoubtly trying very hard to edge as far as possible as he could from that pink git. I hid a grin. Who would ever want to sit with a glob of pig oil?

**Tsunade**

We watched as Professor McGonagall walked up to her seat while signaling us to follow her. We walked to the corner in front if the Hall and was told to stay there and don't move.

I glanced around nervously while Jiraiya chewed his nails. Orochimaru seemed to be the only one who was not nervous; that boy, I could never understand him.

A group of scared looking first years walked behind Professor McGonagall in single-file, and one kid was actually trembling.

"Is this day ever going to end?" I heard Jiraiya whisper. Even _he_ was trembling too.

Suddenly loud clanging sounds could be heard at my right. The Headmaster was clanging his spoon (nice spoon he got there) against his goblet. The Hall hushed immediately.

Professor McGonagall placed a battered old hat onto a stool and stood back. I saw Jiraiya star at it with disgust while Orochimaru raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, the hat sang. Jiraiya, along with several first years, gave a silent shriek and jumped back.

I listened to the lyrics of the song carefully. No doubt, it was about the history of the four Houses Professor McGonagall had once mentioned before.

The song was quite long.

When the hat finally finished the song, it closed its mouth (which was actually a torn gap through the fabric) and fell silent again.

All of the students broke into applause.

"The sorting will begin." Professor McGonagall announced as the clapping died down. She took out a very long list of names and read, "Diethel, Den."

A boy with blond hair stepped out, sat on the stool, and placed the battered hat on his head. It covered his eyes completely._ "A clever mind you've got there,"_ A whispery voice floated around the Hall; the hat was talking again (Jiraiya flinched), _"…which is always suitable in the House of… RAVENCLAW!"_

I watched as applause thundered at the Ravenclaw table and the boy sprang to his feet and hurried off the stage to join them.

The next person, a girl with pigtails, went to Hufflepuff. As usual, the Hufflepuff table clapped and applauded.

I stole a glance at Jiraiya, who was now shaking all over. He became more nervous every time a name was called. I couldn't blame him, our turn was drawing closer and closer…

Finally, the last person among the first years had gone to sit down in the Gryffindor table. Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll she was holding and cleared her throat (Jiraiya gulped), "The Sorting has not finished yet, please remain onto your seats and keep quiet as the Headmaster starts to speak."

A confused murmur broke out throughout the Hall; some students glanced towards our direction, looking rather curious. I felt my heart tightened a bit.

The Headmaster stood up and smiled, "Welcome back to Hogwarts, boys and girls. I promise that this year will be as fun as the last. But before we enjoy our feast, I would like to announce that this year, Hogwarts has three special guests." He nodded to us. Immediately, as though pulled by a magnet, all heads turned to look at us.

Jiraiya shrank back behind me, while Orochimaru fiddled with his fingers as though nothing had happened. I clenched onto the hem of my black robe as I stared down at the floor, trying to avoid thousands of curious eyes.

The Headmaster continued, "Yes, they dress quite differently, yet they were humans just the same. —(He glanced towards the Slytherin table as though answering their impolite questions)— They have happened to arrive at Hogwarts by accident, and do not appear to know how to get back to their homeland. Since then we teachers had agreed to let them stay at Hogwarts until we've found their village —Konoha — and contact one of the villagers to take them home."

Another series of murmur broke out. I felt that if they wouldn't stop pointing at us, I would have to cut off their fingers.

The Headmaster paused for a while, and continued, "Although these kids aren't wizards or witches, they share a special and honored name among their village— yes, these three teenagers are ninjas." He added with a smile.

This time it was not murmurs that broke out among the students, instead, gasps— along with a series of 'Whao!' and 'really?' —spread across the Hall like wildfire.

I could tell without looking at Jiraiya that proud was actually swelling through his insides. I smirked and giggled.

_Humph. What a jerk._

"They will, too, be signed in to one of the four Houses during their long stay, and they will be participating in class as well —and no, they're not Muggles, Madam Pomfrey had ensured that. They could do magic just like everyone else in here, although they will need a lot more time than you do to master a spell."

He motioned us to come forward. We stood in a line in front of the stage (Jiraiya being his nervous self again) and introduced ourselves —or rather me introducing Jiraiya and Orochi by myself —. I took a deep breath and pointed at myself, "I'm _Tsunade_." I said, pronouncing my name a bit more slowly, knowing that they wouldn't quite get my name if I said it too fast, "And this is _Jiraiya_." I pointed to Jiraiya, pronouncing the name a bit slowly again. "And this," Pointing to Orochi, I took a deep breath, knowing that however slowly I pronounce his name it would still make no difference, "is _Orochimaru_. Um, if you find it rather hard to pronounce it, just call him Orochi…he won't mind, I guess."

I felt Orochimaru's glare burn into me.

The Headmaster nodded with satisfaction. Keeping his famous smile, he finally said the sentence that had kept me dreading for the last two days, "Now it is time for their Sorting to begin."

Everybody's eyes followed Jiraiya as he, being the 'brave' one, sat on the stool and put the hat on with shaking hands. I held my breath, and so did Orochimaru. The soft voice floated across the Hall again.

"_Ah, a completely stranger to me, yet I can sense your courage. You have a great heart, yet sometimes you can a bit stubborn…so, I've decided to place you into…GRYFFINDOR!" _

A huge roar of applause rang across the Hall in the Gryffindor table.

I snorted. After realizing that we were actually ninjas, anyone would want us in their house. I glanced towards Jiraiya, and was no surprised to see a whole bunch of Gryffindors surrounding him, shaking his hands frantically while saying stuffs such as _"We are very honored to have you in our House!"_ or _"I promise you that you'll definitely have a good time during your stay!"_

A loud clanging could be heard through the sudden explosion of cheering (from the Gryffindors) and jeering (from the Slytherins). "Settle down, settle down!" Shouted Professor McGonagall.

"I'll go next." I whispered to Orochimaru. He simply shrugged. My heart beating fast, I sat on stool and gulped. All of the students were now looking eagerly at me, hoping that the hat would assign me into their own House. Somehow I felt myself being gambled.

I put the hat on. The mysterious voice floated out again, _"Another unfamiliar person…I see you have the talent of Healing, do you?"_ "Yes," I replied, feeling kind of stupid talking to a hat. _"You are patient, your mind is clean and has a rather…intelligent brain —"_ I immediately knew the answer before the hat could shout out the word_ "RAVENCLAW!"_

Another huge roar from the Ravenclaw table. As I went down the stage and approached them, they nearly lift me up in the air. They shouted out some phrases like _"Ravenclaw rule!" _and _"We have her!"_ as though I was some kind of prey they'd been dying to hunt.

As I sat down on the bench (with a girl still hugging me), I glanced towards the stage where Orochimaru's the only one left standing. I gave a thumbs-up, and received nothing back. I looked around the Hall, only one House, between Slytherin and Hufflepuff could have him (if you don't count Gryffindor and Ravenclaw), and I had a pretty good idea which House he'll be in.

A girl sitting beside me asked, "Don't mean to be rude, but don't you think your friend looks kind of like a snake?" I smiled back at her, "Any sane person could identify that. Wait till you see what kind of body part he has for a reptile."

Sure enough, after a few moments of silence as Orochimaru placed the hat on his head, it shouted, _"SLYTHERIN!"_

Groans floated among the students, especially from the Hufflepuff table. They weren't in a very good mood.

Roars of victory echoed at the Slytherin table while Slytherins ran towards Orochimaru, slapping his back (poor guy) and punching the air with excited fists.

I heard one of the twins sitting beside Jiraiya at the Gryffindor table shrugged, "Oh well," He shouted, loud enough for some of the cheering Slytherins to hear, "At least we've got the strongest of them all." His twin patted Jiraiya on the back. "Actually guys…Orochimaru happened to be the most elite 15 year-old ninja throughout our village." The twins grew silent, and so did their friends.

"You can't blame him though…" Jiraiya added quietly. I, too, hung my head and sighed when I heard this.

Back to Normal Pov 

"And now," Dumbledore said his old yet loud voice, and the Hall fell silent again. "I've forgotten we have yet another guest whom we still haven't introduce—"

His words were interrupted by the most annoying sound of all. "Hem, hem," Umbridge coughed in her own unique way and stood up. The teachers stared at her in disbelief. Orochimaru had a feeling that no one had ever interrupt Dumbledore before, but to his surprise (if you could call a surprise a raised eyebrow), all Dumbledore did was smile and sat down.

Jiraiya finally knew who this git was: An inquisitor from the Ministry of Magic (" What ever that is," He thought with a snort).

And to Tsunade's disbelief, the toad kept on babbling about magical laws and stuff, which she didn't really understand. Although nobody paid attention to Umbridge's long speech; students appeared to be chatting to the three Sannins and providing them more information about Hogwarts.

"And see that fifth year with the little scar on his forehead who was sitting at the Gryffindor table? His name's Harry Potter and he is very famous," A third year informed Tsunade. "Why?" Tsunade whispered. "He appears to be the only one that had survived You-Know-Who's curse!" A boy butted in, still whispering though. Tsunade raised an eyebrow. She had heard among some first years that You-Know-Who was actually a dark wizard called Voldemort, although she had no idea why people were so afraid to speak his name.

She glanced towards the Gryffindor table again. That Harry Potter boy was eagerly asking Jiraiya questions about life in Konoha and it's other ninjas.

Meanwhile, at the Slytherin table, several boys had urged Orochimaru to show them some of his ninja skills. He hastily agreed. The Slytherins watched, wide eyed, as Orochimaru swiftly made some hand signs, took a deep breath, and plunge out his hand, all five of his fingers pointing straight. Several green snakes shot out of his sleeve and whirled around Orochimaru's arm. They stopped at his fingertips and hissed at an astonished-looking boy and, as quickly as they had come, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The Slytherin table echoed with silent claps, along with oohs and aahs, when Umbridge had finally managed to finish her speech. She sat down beaming her horrible beam, no knowing that not even one single person (except a little bit of Hermione) had listened to her speech.

"And now," Said the smiling Dumbledore, who was quite grateful that Umbridge had finally finished talking, "It is time for our feast!"

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_Oh my god this chapter is simply the longest one I've ever written in my life, and I quite enjoy writing it too:) Yes I know, sorry for not putting an Orochimaru POV in this chapter, but I'll have it in future chapters, I promise you!_

_Next chapter will be quite funny, so I hope you'll enjoy that like you'd enjoyed this. I would love to receive reviews from you! _


	5. Never take your food for granted

_I think this will be the last chapter I'm going to be updating daily. Not sure, but one thing I am sure though, is that I won't be updating as frequently now since my family and I decided to pay Hong Kong a visit:) So yeah…_

But hope you guys will be patient! I'll try updating as fast as I can! Oh and please keep those lovely reviews coming!

_On with the story…_

Chapter 5: The slithering tongue 

The feast went on quite smoothly. Though the Sannins had quite a hard time trying to use a fork. "I rather prefer chopsticks," Jiraiya mumbled as he tried to stab a fish ball with such force that it bounced off his plate and hit Ron on the nose. "Oops, sorry." Jiraiya mumbled again.

Meanwhile at the Ravenclaw table, Tsunade was staring at a plate of spaghetti with a disgusted expression on her face. "Please don't tell me they're worms," She said as she started to turn green. Students sitting beside her exchanged looks. "Um, you've never tried spaghetti before, have you?" A girl asked. "Spa…what?…No, I don't think I have." Tsunade shook her head, her eyes still fixed on the reddish mush.

"Then I think you should try some," A third year urged, licking his sauce-full mouth at the same time, "Come on! It's good really, they're just a type of noodles."

Tsunade eyed him suspiciously while taking a careful bite at the noodles. She chewed for a few seconds before launching out and ate the plate of spaghetti like a wolf. The boy and the girl grinned broadly. "See? I told you it's worth a try." The boy laughed.

Everything went well, that is, until dessert was served.

At the Slytherin table, Orochimaru took a bite of chocolate custard cake a Slytherin girl had offered. He had never taste anything so good before! All he had back in Konoha were plain rice (and sometimes) bowls of ramen. He swallowed the whole thing in a gulp and intended to look for more.

Finally.

He had spotted one single (and lonely) custard cake lying innocently on a gold plate at the very far end of the Slytherin table. But to his horror, someone had reached out a hand and intended to grab the last piece.

"_No!"_ He thought. He stood up and leaned towards the table (half of the Slytherin table grew silent), and without warning, he launched out his sickish tongue with great speed that it shot across the table (with saliva splattering while doing so), wrapped itself up around the piece of cake (the boy leaped back with a shriek), and pulled back into its owner's mouth.

Some Slytherin girls screamed, which caused the whole Hall to grow silent while Orochimaru munched happily at the cake. Tsunade had witness the whole incident and was now covering her face with such embarrassment that she didn't even bother to hear Jiraiya roar with laughter (and he was the only who was laughing).

The Hall stood silent for a moment (despite the only laughter from Jiraiya), and, as though a volcano had erupted, the Slytherin table exploded with impressed yells (some weren't so impressed) and roars of laughter.

They gathered around Orochimaru and started asking on how he did that. Orochimaru looked annoyed. All he wanted was another piece of custard cake. He got it, but received some annoying extras as well.

Draco Malfoy rounded on him. "How did you do that?" He asked, his voice quite eager. Orochimaru glared at him. "It's just my tongue," He said in a matter-of-fact way. Malfoy did not seem to be satisfied at Orochimaru's answer, "That's obvious!" He snapped (A/N: His manners disturbs me a lot). Not knowing that Orochimaru had just gave him a death glare, he continued, "My point is that how did you make your tongue do that?"

Orochimaru finally swallowed his custard cake and slid out his tongue to show the Slytherins. His tongue rolled down until it almost reached the floor and slid back into his mouth. "It's my natural ability," He said grumpily, as wows echoed around him.

Even after the dinner feast, people were still asking about his tongue as Orochimaru and his teammates made their way back to the dormitory. Tsunade heard Orochimaru's hand curl around his kunai when a first year had asked him for his autograph.

Before they parted outside the Slytherin common room's portrait, Jiraiya yawned. "Hey Orochi, if the Slytherins asked you more about your hideous tongue, please try not to kill them." He smirked and burst out laughing. "Oh no I won't," Orochimaru scowled as he flexed his hand, making an odd cricking sound, "I'd rather stare into their eyes and make them see their own death..." He smiled evilly at this thought.

"Oh no you don't," Tsunade's eyes narrowed, "That tentique is quite forbidden, you know that do you?" Orochimaru glared back at her, "Yes! I do know that! But Sarutobi said I can still use it if really necessary."

"Necessary! See? You said that yourself! Is it necessary to use it on your classmates just because they've bugged your tongue?"

"Hey! Just cut it out!" Jiraiya stood between them, "Orochimaru didn't really mean it, do you, Orochi?" But Orochimaru had already disappeared through the portrait whole.

Neither of them had a good night's sleep. Tsunade was arranged to sleep with four unknown roommates in the Ravenclaw tower; one of them had a habit of sleep talking. Jiraiya, on the other hand, had better roommates. Since Professor McGonagall could not find a fifth year dormitory with an empty spot for him to fit in, he was assigned to sleep in the sixth year's dormitory instead. And much to Jiraiya's surprise, two of his new roommates were actually Fred and George, whom he heard were Hogwart's supreme troublemakers. He had a feeling that he would like them a lot. Yet, to his disbelief, he was likely way too excited to fall asleep, so he kind of stayed up all night…

As for Orochimaru…well, you get the idea. Thank god he was assigned to sleep with some other Slytherins instead of Malfoy, or the blond would soon be murdered in his bed, for he had asked Orochimaru more about his tongue before they went to bed.

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_I just don't feel like continuing, so I've decided to stop here. The reason is because this stupid computer somehow keeps on shutting down by itself. I guess its old… Anyway I'll use the other computer (which is located downstairs) and try and finish the next chapter as soon as possible. I know this chapter's quite short… _


	6. First Day

Chapter 6: First day

"I felt like a garbage bag," Jiraiya muttered. The others couldn't agree more. Professor McGonagall had insisted to give them uniforms.

Tsunade swung her black cloak around herself while Orochimaru tied his green and sliver scarf around his neck in order to keep out the cold. The only piece of clothing he liked was the identical colors of the ties (and scarves), each representing a House: red for Gryffindor, green for Slytherin, blue for Ravenclaw and yellow for Hufflepuff. These colors undoubtly stood out in a mass of black and grey.

"I think these boots are quite OK though," Tsunade shrugged. Jiraiya snorted loudly, "What's so cool about them? I can't even do those stupid, fancy knots!"

"You are suppose tie it like this!" Tsunade snapped. She knelt down in front of Jiraiya's boots and started to tie them together, "See? You're supposed to tie it like this!" But Jiraiya wasn't listening.

"Jiraiya?"

"Huh? Oh...yeah?"

"Jiraiya, I said –"

"Not now, Tsunade." Jiraiya grunted, and with a great sigh, he threw himself onto a nearby bench in the Dining Hall. "What's up with you?" Tsunade said, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Just dreading about my timetable...look." Jiraiya pointed towards Professor McGonagall, who was currently walking along the isle between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table, giving out slips of parchments to the Gryffindors.

"You'd better go back to your own table, Tsunade, or you'll miss your own timetable," Jiraiya said, as he jerked his thumb towards the tiny Professor Flitwick, who was now passing on timetables to the Ravenclaws.

When Tsunade had returned to her own table and had received her own piece of timetable, she immediately knew why Jiraiya was sulking so much. Perhaps it was because of (in her own timetable) the double Divination taught by Professor Trelawney, whom she had heard was an annoying woman with a rather dreamy and far away voice who kept on predicting Harry Potter's death non-stop; or perhaps it was History of Magic, which was unfortunately taught by a humorless ghost. Tsunade shuddered at that thought.

Orochimaru received his own timetable as well, though it was unceremoniously flung to him by Professor Snape. He stared at Orochimaru for a moment, and before he had turned away from him and headed towards the other direction, Orochimaru thought a slightly concerned look had formed under the Potions Master's face. _Bet he's scared of my tongue_, Orochimaru thought grumpily as he glanced towards his own timetable.

Tsunade's first lesson was Transfiguration; she sighed in relief. At least it's a teacher I truly know, she thought as she walked towards Professor McGonagall's classroom. She bumped into Harry and his friends on the way.

"That friend of yours— er, Jireyeh or something —said you're gonna attend Transfiguration with us, am I right?" Ron asked eagerly.

"Uh...yes, of course...seeing that the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors are taking the lesson together," Tsunade replied nervously (she did not feel too easy without her teammates in sight). Ron did not seem to hear her. "You'll love the lessons here in Hogwarts, I swear, that is, if you leave out Potions, Divination, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic... Care of Magical Creatures..."

"That seems to be almost all of them," Harry concluded as he gave Ron a playful frown. Hermione and Tsunade laughed as the four of them trotted into the classroom.

"Settle down!" Professor McGonagall called through the crowded classroom; it immediately went quiet.

The students each took out their textbooks. Tsunade started to panic as she quickly glanced around the room, trying to find Jiraiya. She spotted him at the back, who had the exact same expression as Tsunade's; they did not have a textbook. In fact, they did not prepare rolls of parchment, ink, and quills.

Luckily, Professor McGonagall had noticed their bewilder faces. "I'm trying to find some second hand books for all of your lessons," She said in her usual stern voice, "So you need not to worry." Jiraiya and Tsunade sighed with relief.

The Sannins decided to meet in front of the lake after dinner.

"That was one great meal," Jiraiya patted his stomach as he sat down beside Orochimaru on the grass, "They've served Tempura and Sushi in one of the dishes. Boy! I never knew they can be that rich to afford such expensive sea food."

"You can simply guess by looking at that castle," Orochimaru pointed out. "Oh, look. Tsunade's here."

Sure enough, when Jiraiya glanced behind him, Tsunade was sprinting towards them, rather out of breath.

"I think it won't be that easy," She said, her chest still heaving, when she had approached the boys. "What won't be so easy?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade started to tremble all over, Orochimaru doubted if she could stand still. "To get back to Konoha," She said, "It-it won't be too easy to get back to Konoha now..."

"What do you mean?" asked Jiraiya, totally confused at what Tsunade was saying, "It won't be that hard, will it? I mean, it's not like Konoha's located in outer space..."

"I doubt it," Tsunade said firmly, causing Jiraiya to shut up, "I really doubt it, Jiraiya. You see, when I had History of Magic this afternoon, Professor Binns told us to write today's date on our essay as well. I-I wrote 1962/9/2, as usual, but when I looked at my classmate's date, it was- it was 1995/9/2 instead! I turned to the other classmates and saw the same date written on their parchment as well!" She then burst into tears, using Jiraiya's cloak as a handkerchief. He patted her on the back while awkwardly trying to tug his cloak away from her face.

"So that means we are in the future," Orochimaru concluded as though it was not a big deal at all. Tsunade sobbed even louder.

"Then if we're way forward in time...how do we know if Konoha's...still here? I mean, thirty-three years! How do we know what had happened during these years?" Jiraiya gulped as the color on his face started to drain.

Tsunade said nothing but continued to sob.

Orochimaru couldn't stand it; he hated it when girls cry. "Um, Tsunade...just stop crying," He said in an annoyed tune, "I promise we'll be able to find Konoha, OK?"

When he did not receive an answer, he sighed and took deep breaths, trying his best to keep his emotions down. He then took out a flute from inside his robes and placed it in front of his mouth. "Maybe this would cheer you up," he said as he started to blow through the whole, "just stop crying, got it?"

Tsunade nodded, drying her tears on Jiraiya's cloak, as the soft and comforting music soar through the air. Tsunade knew this tune; it was simply her favorite of all music. The nice tunes vibrated through her ears as she started to calm down, now breathing normally again. She could hear Jiraiya humming along, his foot tapping silently to the beat.

For the first time, Tsunade had noticed that everything had gone quiet, including the footsteps and the talking among the students. _Probably listening to Orochi's flute_, Tsunade thought,_ he's always a good musician._

Unfortunately, the music did not last long. The bell had rung for bed and Filch the caretaker was currently yelling at the students at the lake. "Up to your dormitories now! No further than nine o'clock for fifth years!" He shouted at Jiraiya and the others; he did not seem to like Orochimaru's music.

Jiraiya groaned as he followed his friends towards the stairs, and bumped into Mrs. Norris on the way; she hissed at him. He really wanted to kick her in the ribs, though he had thought better about it.

After he had parted with his friends and went into his dormitory, Fred and George came in and greeted him goodnight.

"By the way—" said Fred.

"How's your first—" said George.

"Day at school, lad?" Finished Fred.

Jiraiya groaned again. "Don't want to talk about it," he grunted, his mind flying back at the thought of being stuck in the future, "I have too much problems to deal with."

"You said problems eh?" Begin George.

"But we've got something—" Continued Fred.

"Nice and fun—"

"Especially for—"

"You."

George then took out something from his pocket; it was something like a medicine pill. Jiraiya stared at it with interest. "What is it?" he asked curiously.

"This,"

"Is some extraordinary—"

"Substance which we are—"

"Currently developing."

"The effect of the red side of this pill—"

"Will make the person grow purple boils—"

"While the green side of this pill—"

"Will cure the boils."

"So..." Jiraiya said awkwardly, "What's the purpose of it?"

Fred and George exchanged broad grins; Fred tapped his finger on a text book, and after some time, Jiraiya understood. "They're for skipping lessons!" He blurted out, feeling quite proud of his own intelligence, "You pretend you are growing boils and ask the teacher to dismiss you to the Hospital Wing, and then you cure yourself with the other half of the pill!"

"And _then_," concluded Fred.

"You can do whatever you want with a free block!" finished George with an evil grin.

Jiraiya laughed. "Some idea you got there!" he said and smirked at the thought of it.

"We've been testing this one," said Fred, holding up another pill; it was orange and purple.

"And it's a success. Now we will continue on experimenting the pill with the boils."

"Hey! I'm supposed to say the last part!"

"Oops, sorry bro."

"Anyways," Fred continued, as he gave his twin a playful glare, "In order to celebrate our success—"

"We've decided to give this to you—"

"For free."

Jiraiya was quite surprised. "Wow! Really?" he said excitedly as he took the pill from George. The twins then stood up and lied down onto their own bed.

"You'll find it useful, I promise." said Fred, as he went to switch the light off with the handle of his broom.

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Yes, I know. The chapter's short. Yet I don't really have time to write it. I've been so busy in Hong Kong; my parents want me to attend all sorts of activities. Bah! What ever!


	7. Wands vs Kunai

Chapter 7: Wands and Kunai

Tsunade flushed as she watched her perverted teammate tiptoed towards the girl's bathroom. "And just what are you doing?" She hissed through clenched teeth. Jiraiya grinned. "Gathering information," He said with a smirk.

"By peeping into the girl's bathroom?" Tsunade was outranged. She peered around Jiraiya's back and snatched an orange book from him. Steam was pouring through her ears as she read the title: Come Come Paradise.

"Is this how you keep your promise? Sensei told you NOT to write this stuff!" Tsunade shouted in frustration, throwing the book down on the floor and stomping it with her foot. Jiraiya's eyes widened with shock and fury.

"HOW DARE YOU STEP ON MY PRECIOUS BOOK!" he screamed at Tsunade and snatched the book away from her foot. He stood up and glared at Tsunade as though she was something rather disgusting. "I HAVE THE RIGHT TO WRITE AND SELL THIS BOOK! AND YOU KNOW WHAT? IT'LL BE A BESTSELLER, AND I'M GONNA BE RICH!" he jabbed his thumb on his own chest.

Tsunade stared at him in disbelief, and, like an eruption of a volcano, she burst into heaps of laugher. "Your book? _A best seller_?" She laughed so hard that tears were rolling down her cheeks, "Dream on!" she said in a mocking sort of way.

Jiraiya flushed until his face was quite red, and then he said, "Think it's funny huh? We'll see about that!" He placed his book into his bag and trotted towards the door to the girl's bathroom, then he added, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go in and continue my research."

But Tsunade saw, as he was about to reach the handle, something rather strange and, not to mention funny, happened: The 'girl' sign on the door screamed rather sarcastically and shrieked out the word, "Ungrateful pervert!"

And the next thing Jiraiya knew, he was thrown backwards by some sort of invisible hand, crashed into a portrait in the opposite wall, and landed in a heap on the floor. The portrait, in which he had crashed into, had screamed and escaped into her neighbor's frame just in time.

Tsunade was laughing so hard she forgot to breathe.

"_What are you two foreigners doing, kidding in front of a restroom?" _

A shrill, high pitched voice could be heard at the end of the hall.

Tsunade immediately stopped laughing.

When Jiraiya looked up, he saw that it was Umbridge; her sickish grin spreading across her face as usual. Umbridge reached out to grab the book sticking out of Jiraiya's robes, but Jiraiya was too fast for her; he snatched his book from his robes and tossed it onto Tsunade's lap.

Umbridge looked startled at first, but quickly recovered. "Now, now," she thrilled, "Be good, children, and hand that book to me."

Tsunade held up the book and flipped her hand; it vanished in a puff of smoke. "No," she smirked, seeing the shocked expression on Umbridge's face. "Sorry, but we— I mean he, has the right to manage his own property." Tsunade added, while making a mental note not to help Jiraiya too much, since he was one of the people whom she least liked.

Umbridge's unbearable smile disappeared. "So," she said, her bulging eyes narrowing, "So, I think this would mean detention to both of you. Meet me every day, inside my office, six o'clock at night."

"For a whole week." She added with a satisfied expression on her face.

Tsunade's eye's widened with disbelief. _For a whole week? _She thought bitterly at first, but the bitterness no longer lingered inside her head. Instead in was anger and fury (which was precisely the same thing). She hated when people make injustice decisions.

"And just what did we do wrong?" she rebelled. Jiraiya, meanwhile, had started to feel uneasy. "Tsunade," he whispered, "Don't start...we'll be in bigger trouble..."

But Tsunade wasn't listening. She and Umbridge were glaring at each other like hawks. Umbridge was about to make their detentions more sufferable when a silky voice floated across the hall.

"I believe class has started already?"

It was none other than Professor Snape. He was walking (more like gliding) towards them in his usual bat-like way. He stopped in front of Jiraiya, who was still sitting on the floor, and looked down at him with a slight frown.

When Umbridge saw another teacher approaching, she beamed her horrible beam as though she had done something noble. "Ah, Professor Snape! How nice to see you here! I've just been punishing these two prats with detentions! They've done something unacceptable and it is my duty, as an inquisitor, to—"

"— punish students?" Professor finished her sentence as he turned his frown from Jiraiya to Umbridge. Tsunade could tell by the look on his face that he was not happy about it.

"May I assure you, that inquisitors aren't teachers," Professor Snape continued, "I expected you to know this."

"Or is there some sort of body part of yours functioning rather poorly?" he added with a slight smirk. Then he changed the subject quickly, as though to distract Umbridge's shock and anger, "What, precisely, have these two done?"

"Well," Umbridge started, trying very hard to prevent herself from cursing Professor Snape with her wand, "They had chosen to refuse to hand in the book they were holding when I'd asked them to."

"You gave them detention because you could not get your hands on their book." Professor Snape said, frowning more deeply than ever.

"Although my reasons of punishments are harsh, yours are definitely harsher. I've once gave Potter detention because he'd shouted at me rather loudly; yet I've never seen someone give somebody detention because she could not receive their book." He finished with a satisfied smirk.

He then turned towards Jiraiya and Tsunade. "Go back to class," he ordered, "You do not need to attend detentions with her."

"Go," he hissed when he saw their bewildered faces, "Before I change my mind."

Jiraiya and Tsunade scrambled to their feet, muttered a quick "thanks" and hurried towards the staircase. But before Jiraiya had approached the first step, he had managed to hear the adult's last conversation.

"I know what kind of detention you give to our students," Jiraiya heard Professor Snape said, "And I can report it to the headmaster and ministry at any time I want."

------------------- ------------------------- ----------------------------- ----------------------------

Jiraiya had been really curious on the detention issue ever since he had overheard Umbridge and Professor Snape's conversation, but had dropped this thought when the next incident occurred: a fight between Draco Malfoy.

It all happened on their sixth day at Hogwarts. The Sannins were playing Exploding Snap with the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione when Draco and his usual gang came trotting across the grass.

"What a waste," Malfoy said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Three elite ninjas, playing with a bunch of peasants. Let's hope they won't lower themselves to _their_ level." he jerked his thumb towards Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys. Several Slytherins laughed.

Ron stood up, but Hermione pulled him back down. "It's not worth it," she pleaded as Ron's face started to turn red with fury.

"I know Mudblood, I know," Malfoy added sarcastically, and nodded towards the Sannins, "It's not worth to pull them with you. Who knows what will become of them? Probably some kind of unrecognizable creatures...probably Flobberworms."

He then broke into heaps of laugher, accompanied by most of the Slytherins (accept Orochimaru, that is).

This time it was Tsunade who stood up. Everybody watched as she stomped across the grass towards Malfoy, pulling out her kunai as she did so.

She pointed the tip towards Malfoy's chest. "Who are you calling Flobberworm?" she hissed into his face. Malfoy smirked, "Kill me then, let's see if you can."

He did not know Tsunade's skill of throwing a kunai. Tsunade smirked back. "If you want me to demonstrate, I'd be happy to do so."

Without warning, she flung her kunai onto the grass without looking. It landed on something with a sickish 'thud'. Tsunade then pulled the kunai off the grass, and to Malfoy's horror, the tip of the kunai contained, wriggling rather frantically, an earthworm.

Some of the girls shrieked in disgust.

Malfoy just stood there, paralyzed. Tsunade wave the earthworm in front of him and he made a disgusted expression. "Th-that's your best?" Malfoy stammered, failing to keep his voice calm.

"You're shaking from head to toe; it's a miracle you can still stand." Tsunade said, smirking ever widely.

Malfoy's face had gone red with anger. "Oh yeah?" he shouted loudly, "Let's have a real duel and see who'll end up shaking from head to toe. _Incarcerous_!" A long rope shot out from Malfoy wand and went hurling towards Tsunade; yet she was too fast for it. She jumped aside just in time.

But unfortunately, Jiraiya, who was beside Tsunade, got caught in the rope instead. "Hey!" he shouted, wriggling and squirming. Orochimaru took out his kunai and started cutting the ropes, but it wouldn't break apart.

He turned severely towards Malfoy. "Hey," he said, "Release him. He's not involved in the fight." But Malfoy just scoffed, "Aren't you supposed to be, as you're friend over here had said, the strongest of them all? And you can't even cut through ropes?"

Some Slytherins laughed; nervously, that is. Orochimaru narrowed his eyes; he would not give mercy to people who questioned his strength.

He glared at Malfoy and, as a great idea had formed into his head, he turned to face the person beside Malfoy: Crabbe.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and as though the weather had suddenly turned cold, Crabbe started to shiver all over, who then toppled down onto the grass with a yell.

"What's up with you?" Malfoy snapped as Crabbe started screaming horribly.

"I-I...I just saw..."

"You just saw what?" Malfoy snapped again, starting to grow impatient. "He just saw his own death." Orochimaru finished for him lazily. Unable to keep a smile from his face, he glanced towards Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Do you mind if I use it one more time?" he said.

Tsunade was about to explode. "You've just the forbidden jutsu _again_!" she bellowed, "You _never_ keep your promise do you?" Before Orochimaru could answer, Malfoy shouted angrily, "What the hell did you do to him?"

"Wanna try?" Orochimaru challenged.

"Why you freaking— _stupefy_!"

Orochimaru disappeared in a puff of smoke as a jet of red light shot through the place from where he was standing a few seconds ago; it hit a tree and rebounded, which had, fortunately, missed Harry by several inches.

"Where did he go?" Harry shouted. Fred and George shrieked in surprise. "He knows how to Disapparate?" they said together.

Meanwhile, Malfoy was looking frantically around for any sign of Orochimaru. Suddenly, someone shouted, "He's up there!" Malfoy quickly glanced towards the sky; sure enough, a dark figure came falling towards him along with at least a dozen sherikens. Malfoy screamed and managed to stop the sherikens in midair before any of them can hit him.

"_Nice reflexes! But not good enough."_

Several voices shouted across the field at the same time.

Harry and the others turned around to look, and gasped in surprised when they saw, not only one, but ten Jiraiyas sprinting across the field at the same time. "Took us some time to undo the ropes, but never mind!" one of them shouted to Orochimaru, while another yelled, "_We'll take it from here_!"

Orochimaru obediently disappeared in a puff of smoke again, then appearing right beside the place where Ginny was sitting, causing her to jump.

Malfoy watched horridly as ten Jiraiya clones close up on him. "Stay back!" he bellowed, "_Flagrantia_!"

A long, flaming line of fire shot out of his wand as the ten Jiraiyas approached.

They skillfully did some hand signs, then, all as one:

"_Water style: Dance Of The Swirling Eels_!"

Immediately, ten jets of water, all shaped like a swimming eel, hurled up from the lake. The scene was quite astonishing: They dived gracefully, yet with great speed, onto Malfoy, who was too frightened to move.

Anyone could guess what happened at the end. Roars of laugher could be heard throughout Hogwarts as Malfoy (and many other students) came coughing and spluttering out of the huge puddle of water; his face was smudged and his clothes were horribly soaked. Harry and the others were unharmed, though; Hermione had managed to use the 'Impervius' spell on herself and her friends, which had successfully made themselves water resistant, while Tsunade and Orochimaru disappeared and appeared back onto a nearby tree before the ten jets of water had managed to crash down.

Jiraiya vanished his clones and beamed down at Malfoy in triumph; he had never felt so satisfied with himself before. The jutsu, for the first time, preformed successfully. His mind was still on the moon when Malfoy's voice exploded in his ears.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SO COOL, DO YOU?" Malfoy's face was bright red with anger and embarrassment as he staggered onto his feet, water still dripping frequently from his face and robes. He pointed his wand to Jiraiya, eyes wide with insane anger.

"I WON'T LOSE TO RUBBISH LIKE YOU!" he bellowed, "I CERTAINLY WON'T! MY DAD'S WAY STRONGER THAN YOU! AND- AND HIS MASTER...HA! YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR HIM! HE...HE TAUGHT ME A USEFUL SPELL THAT'LL SIMPLY MAKE YOU BEG FOR MERCY—"

"Use it on me then!" Jiraiya shouted back, cutting through Malfoy's words, "Use it on me, and I'll prove to you that the spell's rubbish! Because that 'master' of your dad's have no talent at all!"

His words had done it. Malfoy, shaking in such fury, had immediately raised his wand and shouted out the incantation that made Hermione gasp in horror, "_CRUCIO_!"

Jiraiya screamed as pain shot through his entire body, making him twist and turn horribly on the grass; he felt as though all of his muscles and bones were ripped apart.

Tsunade covered her mouth while Orochimaru's hung open, both of them unable to speak.

"Stop it Malfoy!" Harry bellowed, but did not receive an answer. Fred jumped to his feet. "I'm going to get McGonagall!" he shouted over tortured screams as he ran as fast as he could towards to castle.

Malfoy did not seem to care. He was too angry to care, yet an insane smile had spread across his face as he watched Jiraiya screaming and twitching on the grass. _This, for some reason, felt so good..._

Tsunade could not take it anymore. With a yell of, "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" she flung her kunai as hard as she can towards Malfoy. Malfoy gasped, but too late; the kunai had buried itself deeply onto Malfoy's shoulder. Blood spluttered out of his robes and he screamed in pain as the curse on Jiraiya lift, leaving him panting and coughing on the grass, his body spread into an odd angle.

Harry, Ron, and George immediately got up to help him. Hermione was simply shaking with anger. "You beast!" she bellowed at the blood-covered Malfoy, "It's one of the unforgivable curses! What are you thinking!" Ginny joined in, "You learn it from a _certain_ Death Eater didn't you?"

This was a statement rather than a question. Malfoy looked up from his wincing, "How do you know?" he asked softly, ignoring the stinging pain on his shoulder, "How do you know my dad's—"

"By your horrible look!" Ginny shouted, "Anyone could guess the Malfoy's—" But before she could finish her sentence, an extremely angry voice barked across the field, causing everyone to look around; it was Professor McGonagall.

"_Can you please tell me what had happened?_"

She walked hurriedly towards the crowd, accompanied by Fred, and stopped dead when she saw Malfoy's injured shoulder, the kunai still sticking out of his flesh.

"_Tell me what happened_!" she barked ever loudly. The crowd flinched.

She glanced from the kunai to the three Sannins, and raised an eyebrow when she spotted Jiraiya on the ground.

"Pro-professor!" gasped Malfoy painfully, and then he pointed at the ninjas, "It was them, Professor! They did it! They-they injured my shoulder with no reason at all!"

Professor McGonagall shot an angry look at them. But before she could say anything, Hermione and Tsunade shouted "No!" at the same time.

"There _is_ a very good reason," said Tsunade. "That's right," said Hermione, "You see, Professor, Malfoy had used an Unforgivable Curse on Jiraiya."


	8. The straightened boat along the bridge

_Professor McGonagall shot an angry look at them. But before she could say anything, Hermione and Tsunade shouted "No!" at the same time._

"_There is a very good reason," said Tsunade. "That's right," said Hermione, "You see, Professor, Malfoy had used an Unforgivable Curse on Jiraiya."_

------------------------ ------------------------- ----------------------------- -----------------------

Chapter 8: The straightened boat along the bridge

"You've went too far this time. Do you know that?"

"Yes...I-I know. But I didn't mean—"

"Listen to me! I would not permit you to do that again, however hard the situation is, understand?"

"I will not do that again dad."

"We got lucky this time, if it wasn't for the fortune I've been keeping for years, I'm afraid you would be sent to Azkaban right at this moment!"

"I told you I'm sorry! It was not entirely my fault and you know that! Those bastards, showing off just because they're special! If they hadn't humiliate you and your master, I wouldn't have perform—"

"Don't worry and don't talk about it, Draco. He already knows. He's going to deal with it on his own and in his own way."

"He really hates them now, does he, dad?"

"Just don't talk about it for now."

"Ok, dad."

_(A/N: All Malfoy haters out there: please don't get mad at me! I have a reason to do this.)_

---------------------------------- ------------------------------- ----------------------- -------------

Hermione slammed the _Daily Prophet _onto the table, causing a cup of pumpkin juice rattle dangerously in front of Ron. "Whoa!" said Ron, "Steady yourself Hermione."

"How can I steady myself?" Hermione shouted, "Just look at this!" She flipped opened the paper and shoved it towards Ron. Ron stared at it for a moment in disbelief. "I don't believe this...he got out? He actually _got out_?" He stammered as he handed the paper to Harry.

Hermione nodded angrily. "Is there any justice at the ministry? They let Malfoy out because his dad gave the ministry 43 million Galleons in return!"

Harry glanced around the Great Hall, trying to find Draco. And there he was, sitting at the Slytherin table and chatting excitedly as though nothing had happened. Harry hadn't noticed that he was so angry, that he was actually crumbling the paper and tearing it into pieces.

It would suite him so well in Azkaban. But instead his dad paid 43 billion and got Malfoy out.

_43 billion..._

_The ministry cares for nothing but money... I felt so sorry for Jiraiya._

Harry looked for Jiraiya and spotted him sitting at the end of Gryffindor table, talking cheerfully with Fred, George, and Ginny, not knowing what had just happened, not knowing that he had suffered for no reason at all.

Just then, his scar started to throb painfully. Mainly he wouldn't care, yet this time it hurt so much that it was impossible to ignore. Harry turned his eyes away from Jiraiya, and to his surprise, the pain suddenly stopped.

_Odd_, he thought.

----------------- -------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- ------

"Now class," shrilled Umbridge in her horrible voice, "I want all of you to read chapter two for me."

The class groaned in disbelief and opened their books, yet Tsunade was the only one who didn't.

"_They deserve suffering, master, all of them."_

This was the only line she could remember from her dream last night, a few hours after the fight with Malfoy. Somehow she had failed to shake off the voice that said this line, a voice she did not recognize, a voice that echoed and vibrated so horribly in her head that it would be impossible to ignore.

_What did it mean?_ She thought as she stared at her DADA text book blankly, unaware that Umbridge's eyes were fixed upon her. _What did it mean by suffering? And who are 'they'? Why was there the word 'master'?_

"Hem, hem."

Tsunade snapped out from her own thoughts. She looked up and saw a pair of bulging eyes staring back at her.

"I said," Umbridge smiled her horrible smile, "Turn to chapter two."

Tsunade sighed and obediently flipped her book to chapter two.

As the class started to read, Umbridge settled on her desk and started to do her own work.

Jiraiya lazily flipped across a few pages and yawned loudly. A few students chuckled. At the front of the class Umbridge looked up. "Jiray or whatever your name is, keep quiet please. I do not permit any impolite and embarrassing behaviors during class, understand?"

"Yes, professor Umbridge." Jiraiya said without really meaning it. Umbridge returned to her work and the class fell silent again.

Yet a few minutes later, a soft, snoring noise could be heard throughout the classroom. Many students turned their heads and unmistakably saw Jiraiya—whose feet were propped up rather impolitely on the desk— fast asleep, even though his DADA textbook was still dangling dangerously in his hands.

As the whole class started to laugh, Umbridge, once again, looked up from her work, quite irritated this time.

Meanwhile Tsunade panicked. "Fool!" she thought angrily, while eyeing Jiraiya with disgust as his slightly opened mouth started to drool, "We've been in trouble already and yet you don't seem to care!"

As the snores went on, Umbridge stood up and walked forwards until she approached Jiraiya's desk. "Hem, hem." She 'said' loudly. Jiraiya did not seem to hear her. Umbridge's usual smile faded. "That means detention to you dear. No sleeping in class." Jiraiya did not even stir.

Umbridge's face turned red with frustration. She snatched Jiriaya's textbook from his hands and slammed it onto the table. Jiraiya woke up with a start. "Don't Orochimaru!" he shouted as he sprang up in his seat. For a second he stood there, looking around confusingly at the class, whom were now laughing their heads off.

Tsunade was the only one who didn't laugh. As Jiraiya stood there, she looked at him in question, her mind racing...she knew something in Jiraiya's mind that the others didn't...

Umbridge stood in front of Jiraiya, looking at him with satisfaction. "Detention for you, boy," she said, as Jiraiya looked up at her broad face, "You can't get away this time, not when other teachers aren't around."

When Jiraiya didn't respond, Ron nervously nudged him in the ribs. "Uh...sorry, I just...fell asleep." Jiraiya, finally snapping back to reality, mumbled an apology. Umbridge however, didn't seem to hear him.

"Detention. Eight o'clock every night. Starting from tomorrow, all the way to next Tuesday," Umbridge said, eyes glowing with satisfaction as she saw the change on Jiraiya's face. "And," she gave a little laugh, "I've been wanting to punish another ungrateful student for a week, other than Potter. – (At the back of the room Harry and Ron growled) — and since I've found one, no teacher can get you out of trouble this time. Not even that loathing face of Snape."

At the back of the room, Harry, Ron, Hermione and many other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws raised their eyebrows as Umbridge finished her sentence. Calling Snape a 'loathing face' had, indeed, brightened Harry's day a bit, yet the part where he got Jiraiya out of trouble was so much as confusing.

"Did she mean that greasy git just—" Ron whispered to Harry, but was shortly cut off by the angry voice of Jiraiya.

"One week of detention?" he shouted, "Isn't that a bit too much, _again_?"

"You know the rules well. I do not permit you to sleep in class, dear," sang Umbridge.

"But I-I," Jiraiya stammered angrily, "I don't even know why I fell asleep. I just sort of...slumped down, and...and..." At this point Jiraiya's voice trailed off; a confused and dazed expression lingered once again on his face.

Umbridge chuckled. "No excuses can get you out of trouble," she said, "No matter how stupid your excuses are."

"Your rules are stupid!" yelled Jiraiya, extremely frustrated by now, "Sensei always knows what punishments are too strict and he always has a good reason for it! Not like you, toad face!"

Many people gasped. As they all turned their heads to face the inquisitor, they were now surprised to see veins sticking out of the flesh on her face. If you refuse to look closely, you'll probably wonder what a fire-breathing toad is doing in a classroom.

"I'm afraid you won't be having a week's detention," Umbridge's voice started to tremble, "I think a month would do."

She sneered when Jiraiya started to rebel, and cut him off with a sentence that made him and Tsunade explode with anger. "An ungrateful child with no sense of respect, I believe the ones who taught and live with you doesn't even worth existing."

An extremely heavy tension broke out throughout the class as Tsunade and Jiraiya rose from their seats; half of the class flinched when they heard the clinging shurikan and kunai inside Tsunade's weapon pack.

"Say that again, and a kunai will be sticking out of your throat." Tsunade breathed with an expression that made everyone rather nervous.

"Oh no, you wouldn't want to do that," Umbridge laughed, even though she did not seem to know what a kunai was, "Killing a member of the Ministry of Magic can cost you a life time prison in Azkaban."

Tsunade snorted. "Oh, I've heard of Azkaban all right," she said in a mocking sort of way, "You think that kind of cell can really scare us? I think it's no where as horrible as an S-ranked criminal in Konoha."

Umbridge's eyes narrowed. "As for me," she hissed, "I do not think your so called S-ranked criminals dangerous, considering that your whole village is as low as trolls."

Tsunade was about to unleash an attack when Jiraiya quickly butted in. "Who's the stupid troll yelling at?" he said loudly.

Without making his sentence sink into her brain properly (mainly because she was furious), Umbridge snapped, "At you, of course!" _(See A/N at the very bottom)_

At once the whole class burst into heaps of laugher; Jiraiya was simply beaming in triumph at the bewildered Umbridge as Harry gave him a high five; Tsunade and Ginny were snickering and the rest of the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were rolling in their seats, howling with laugher.

It took Umbridge quite some time to get the trick. And when she finally did, her face was a dark shade of red and pink.

"You..." was all she could say, because after a few seconds, the bell for lunch rang out throughout the halls of Hogwarts, and without another word, Umbridge snatched her stuff from her desk and stormed out of the classroom.

--------------- ------------------------- ---------------------------- ----------------------- ---------

The news about the 'Umbridge-claimed-herself-as-a-troll" incident spread around the school like wildfire, even faster than last time, which was undoubtly about the yelling match between Harry and Umbridge.

And by the time dinner was served at six, the elves in the kitchen, or the ghosts gliding through the halls, or even the portraits had heard about it. Everyone was talking about it, mind you. And no doubt, when Orochimaru passed by a random billboard, he noticed that a poster bigger than itself was pinned onto it by, unmistakably, Fred and George. The poster read:

WHY STOP THE EXCITEMENT WHEN THE DAUGTHER OF A TROLL CAME, INDEED, 'TROLLING' INTO OUR SCHOOL? INCREASE THE HAPPINESS IN YOUR LIVES BY SUPPORTING OUR UP-COMING PRODUCTS FROM THE 'WEASLEY WIZARD WHEAZES' ORDER FORM. Fred and George Weasley, Gryffindor common room, Hogwarts.

Underneath the big poster, stacked in a neat pile on a small table, were yellow order forms. Orochimaru snorted

Umbridge did not talk at all during dinner. Tsunade noticed that many students were shifting their eyes at Umbridge's direction and whispering and giggling in each other's ears. She also noticed that the teachers were in a good mood too, except for Professor Grubby-Plank who was too tired and fell silently asleep in her chair, and Professor Snape who did not seem to have smiled for years.

Tsunade turned back to her food. All she could worry about now was the injustice of the Ministry of Magic for the Malfoys, Sarutobi and her village, and, most of all, the up-coming detention for Jiraiya.

---------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------------- ---------------- -------------------

The thought of his detention with Umbridge had simply made Jiraiya's day darker than ever even though the sun was shining rather brightly in the sky. Although he had been in detention many times before during his life in Konoha, he still felt a bit nervous.

_It couldn't be worse than my last one_, Jiraiya though bitterly as a fleeting memory of himself being made to stand on one foot on top of an extremely high telephone pole for an hour under the sun because, if he could remember clearly, that he had skillfully placed some of Tsunade's slugs into Sarutobi's robes when he was changing.

Jiraiya chuckled at this thought and accidentally choked and squirted pumpkin juice out of his nose. Harry and the other at the Gryffindor table laughed, while Hermione and Tsunade eyed him with disgust.

Suddenly Ron stopped laughing as though he had remembered something. "Er, Jiraiya?" he said, looking at Jiraiya rather nervously, "Er...aren't you afraid of your detention tonight?" he and Harry exchanged glances.

"_Cough_..._cough_...er, no. I'm not," replied Jiraiya, as the dizzy feeling inside his head started to fade, "Why do you ask?"

Harry glanced uncertainly at Ron, and then said, "Well, there's something we would like to tell you, er...about the detention with Umbridge, that is—"

Yet Harry had been spared for thinking of a way to say it. The bell had somehow rang to inform that dinner was finally over and students had to go back to their dormitories.

Jiraiya quickly got off his seat and dashed towards the doors. "Tell me about it some time later, OK?" he called back to his friends, and before Harry could stop him, he had vanished among the mass of black through the hall.

A/N: I typed this chapter at top speed, so if there are many mistakes, please don't be frustrated. I don't have time to proof-read it all over (sweatdrop)

Oh, and about the trick that Umbridge fell into: Yes, it was indeed a very good trick. You can actually use it on someone when they're really mad and not thinking clearly. (I learned this in a Chinese fiction, so to tell you the truth, it works better in Chinese.)


	9. Detention

_Even though the words "back to school" lurking inside my head made me feel incredibly down, I still felt emotionally happy. The really long review from whoever you are has brightened up my day:)_

_Oh, and…uh, sorry I made you wait:( It's been…let's see…a month since my last update? Well, at least I've finally updated a new chapter by now (smiles nervously), hope you'll like it! _

_One more thing: Anyone of you read/watch/like/love or simply obsessed with Death Note, then I recommend you to go to Anime/manga / Death Note / Humor / For the Love of Cake_

_You should really read it. Although it makes somewhat no sense at all, it's still my favorite DN fic. :)_

Chapter 9:……

Jiraiya knocked on Umbridge's door. "Come in," sang a girlish voice.

He opened the door and was taken aback the moment he entered the room. The windows and the walls were decorated with pink laces and ribbons; the selves above Umbridge were full of fake, watery-eyed kittens with lots of different colored ribbons tied to their necks; and worst of all, the entire room smelled of strong, rose scented perfume.

Jiraiya sneezed. The scene was rather unbearable. Umbridge's way-too sweet voice sang out, "Ah, good evening, Mr. Jiray. I see that you've came on time."

"The name's Jiraiya," Jiraiya said, felling quite annoyed. "Oh silly me. Sorry about that, Jirayi," said Umbridge, smiling her widest. Jiraiya was quite sure she did that on purpose and decided not to correct her anymore.

Umbridge pointed to a chair, in which in front stood a small wooden table and a few pieces of parchment. "You will write the words ' I will behave myself'. Please use this special quill of mine, —(she took out a long black quill from under her drawer and handed it to Jiraiya)— you may start now."

Jiraiya frowned as he settled himself down and exclaimed Umbridge's "special quill". _How can I write if the quill doesn't have ink?_ He thought. Umbridge seemed to have read his mind. "Oh you won't need any ink, dear," she smiled, "Go on, go ahead and start writing." Jiraiya frowned some more; this woman's eagerness had somehow started to bug him.

Jiraiya placed his quill onto the paper and started to write the first two words, but stopped. He had forgotten how to spell the word 'behave'. Even though he and his teammates had stayed at Hogwarts for almost a month, his English still needed a bit more practice. The 'language charm' in which Dumbledore had cast upon them wasn't much help in terms of completing their homework essays either. "I think this charm can only help our mouths, not our hands," Orochimaru finally concluded in Transfiguration as he dumped his quill onto the table, giving up his essay about Vanishing snails because he couldn't spell the word 'Vanishing'.

"Why aren't you writing?" Umbridge's voice sang into his ears, causing him to jump. "Oh, I…uh…," Jiraiya said. Could he ask her how to spell 'behave'? No. No way would he do that. "Nothing—" he started to say, but Umbridge cut across him. "Oh, I see. You don't know how to spell, do you?"

Jiraiya flushed but said nothing. He thought he heard a snicker when Umbridge sighed, "Foreigners…foreigners…" Jiraiya's blood started to bubble. _Who does she think she is? Some kind of God?_ Jiraiya thought furiously,_ Let's see what she'll do if someone asked her to write Japanese! _

Umbridge sounded rather please with herself, "First of all, 'I' as in 'ice cream' will need to be capitalized; the next word, 'will', will be spelt as 'w-' as in 'water', 'i-' as in 'icicle' for a change, —(Jiraiya gritted his teeth so hard that his gums started to hurt)— and finally a nice double 'l' as in 'lilies' and 'laces'. As for the third word it will be precisely spelt as: 'B-' as in 'butterflies', 'e-' as in 'eggs', 'h-' as in 'hats', 'a-' as in 'aprons', 'v-' as in 'violets', and 'e-' as in 'eggs' again. The fourth word 'myself' is spelt as—"

"_Thank you Professor, I can manage the rest myself,_" Jiraiya cast Umbridge his most loathing glare. Both of his hands were clenched so tight together that it was quite a miracle Umbridge's quill didn't get snapped in half.

With his face still red with anger, Jiraiya wiped his sweaty hands on his robes and started to write his sentence on the parchment.

_I will behave myself._

Jiraiya gazed down onto the writing; it was shimmering with red ink. But as a Shinobi himself, he knew very well that this was not any ink at all, it was blood.

At precisely this moment, a sharp stinging feeling occurred on the back of his hand. He looked down at it and was quite surprised to see a faint outline of the words 'I will behave myself' carved into it. The words showed up for a few seconds then sank back down, leaving nothing but a red mark on his skin. Jiraiya stared at it for a second then returned his gaze back onto the parchment.

Jiraiya wrote his sentence the second time. The stinging feeling started to get stronger, yet it did not hurt; he wrote his sentence for the third time. As usual, his hand healed after a few seconds.

He wrote it again and again, yet the stinging would not leave his hand. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Umbridge frowning slightly at him.

"You know what?" he told Umbridge with frustration about half an hour later, "I give up on this. My hand's itching like mad." Jiraiya dropped the quill and started scratching his reddened hand.

Umbridge raised her eyebrows and stared at Jiraiya's hand. "…Itching?" she said. There was a creepy silence between them. A moment later, Jiraiya started to get frustrated. "Well, I'd better go now due to the time—" he looked at the heart-covered clock hanging on the wall; it was 10 pm. Jiraiya glanced back at Umbridge, waiting for her approval for him to leave, but instead of growing hot in the face and finding excuses for him not to leave the room, Umbridge just stood there, doing nothing but staring blankly from Jiraiya's hands to her black quill lying innocently on the table.

Seeing that this was getting nowhere, Jiraiya shrugged and left, closing the door with a bang.

As soon as he climbed into the portrait hole (bumping his head as he did so), he was greeted by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all of whom looked rather nervous. "So, how was the detention?" asked Ron breathlessly. Jiraiya just shrugged, "Well it was…not too bad, I guess." Then he told them the whole story.

Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks. "Can we see your hand?" asked Harry. Jiraiya lift his reddened hand and let them exclaim it. All Harry, Ron, and Hermione could see were light red marks.

When Harry leaned closer, he also noticed that there were bits of dead skin. Without warning, he poked Jiraiya's hand several times, stared at it for a moment, then laughed.

Harry's sudden immaturish move made Jiraiya jump and yank his hand back. "Boy, your skin's rather thick," grinned Harry. When the others continued to star at him like idiots, he explained, "That stupid quill of hers would easily cut through my hand, see?" he held out his bandaged hand to Jiraiya and turned to look at Hermione and Ron, and beyond his surprise, Hermione immediately understood, while Ron just stared at him stupidly.

Hermione turned to look at Jiraiya, "You see, Jiraiya? That quill Umbridge told you to use is quite special. Once the holder of that quill wrote something with it on a piece of parchment, the words would cut through the skin of your hand, then heal immediately. But once you've used it for too long, the process of healing would start to lag, and by that time…" she pointed to Harry's bandaged hand. Jiraiya stared at it and his eyes twitched.

"But it's supposed to hurt, right?" he asked, rubbing his own hand furiously as if the horrible pain on Harry's injured hand was cast upon his own.

"Well, for him it does," Hermione said, "But somehow it didn't have much of an effect on you, since your skin, due to continuous training, is rather rough." When Jiraiya sighed in relief, she added quickly, "But bear in mind that it will still hurt and bleed if you use that quill too much—"

"So that's why," Ron butted in, finally getting what they were saying and feeling a bit ashamed of himself, "So that's why you would need to be careful whenever you're with Umbridge, or you would end up like Harry—" he added quickly when Harry gave him a negative look, "—but I don't really think Harry's done anything wrong, I mean right, I mean—"

"That's quite alright," Harry said sarcastically, petting Ron on the shoulder. A few seconds of silence passed, then Jiraiya sighed, "Well? What can I do? I've still got precisely 29 days of detention with that toad, how can I possibly think of anything to use to protect my hand from that stinking quill?"

He slumped down onto a squashy chair and fiddled with his fingers, currently thinking hard.

"Oh! Then what about that fancy jutsu of yours? You know, the clone jutsu you used during that fight with Malfoy?" Ron exclaimed hopefully. Jiraiya just glanced up at him with sad eyes, "That won't really work," he said, "You see, I'm not good in that jutsu, well, at least compared to Tsunade-san and Orochimaru-kun. My illusion can only hold on for half an hour, and by the time it's dropped, I'm likely to drop too."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "Well," Jiraiya heaved a sigh, "Unlike you guys, in order to perform jutsu, we need to use a body energy called chakra, and once all of it has drained from your body, you won't be able to even stand."

The four of them fell silence again. A minute or so passed, and finally, unable to stand the tension in the air much longer, Ron muttered, "Well…it can't be that bad, can it? I mean, that look on Umbridge's face when she saw that the quill wasn't working properly on you. I'll bet you 10 Galleons that Umbridge's face went completely red as soon as you've stepped out of her office."

Jiraiya gave him a small laugh and fell silent again. Harry started to get a little frustrated, "Oh come on, Jiraiya! You've definitely had way more injuries then I do! And what's that called again? The 'Chuunin exam' or something? You said it was simply the hardest examination in the universe which made you ended up with three broken ribs and two twisted ankles."

Jiraiya looked up at him. "I made up the ankle part," he said. Harry blinked, then sighed frustratedly, "Whatever. What I'm saying is, you don't have to be so down just because of a stupid quill. You've been through way more nasty situations before, and besides, nothing can be worse than three broken ribs, right?"

He was quite wrong.

--------------- --------------------- ---------------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------

Yay. Go ahead. Punch me. Punch me for updating a boring cliffhanger. _Writer's block_. Again.


	10. the definition for 'hallucination'

Finally! A double-digit:) Chapter 10 is right hereXD

Chapter 10: The definition of 'hallucination'

Just as Hermione had expected, ever since Jiraiya had started his detention with Umbridge, the wound on the back of his hand was deeper than ever. And soon, much to his disgrace, it had started to bleed rather horribly and he had to beg Tsunade on all fours to lend him some her precious curing herbs. Tsunade, of course, have no other choice but to generously donate some to him.

At about 10:30pm one night, Jiraiya stepped out of Umbridge's office and slammed the door absent-mindedly behind him, swaying a little as he did so (due to big amounts of blood lost).

He stumped moodily back into the Gryffindor common room and slumped on to a nearby squashy armchair. Much to his surprise, almost half of the common room were filled with students, most of them flipping through books and taking notes on to pieces of parchment.

This immediately reminded Jiraiya of the final exam that would take place somewhere between April and May. What made Jiraiya feel less depressed was that he and his teammates did not need to attend the exam, seeing that they were still beginners in Magic.

Suddenly, startled screams could be heard throughout the common room. Jiraiya jerked his head around and saw, with a grin on his face, that Tsunade and Orochimaru had appeared in a big cloud of smoke, right in front of a terrified first year.

The common room gasped when they saw a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin appeared out of nowhere.

"How did you do that?" Fred and George exclaimed at the same time, while Lee Jordan rubbed his eyes furiously to rid of the smoke.

Finally finishing in cleaning his eyes, he said, "But I thought we can't Aparate beyond the school grounds! And besides, you guys hadn't even learnt Aparation yet."

Tsunade gave him a smirk, "We don't _Aparate_," she said, "This is actually a very simple jutsu that every ninja must know, or else they won't be able to graduate from the ninja academy—"

"What's a jutsu?" all three of them asked together.

"Ninja arts," Tsunade explained, "There are mainly three types of Jutsu; Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Gen—"

"Where's Jiraiya?" Orochimaru quickly cut her off, thinking that Tsunade's speech would go on forever if not stopped in time. He spotted Jiraiya at the far end of the room and dragged Tsunade towards him.

They sat down facing Jiraiya. "We've come to discuss something," Orochimaru said, "and better use Japanese by the way. We don't want anybody to eavesdrop on us."

"_What's so important?_" Jiraiya asked, feeling rather comfortable speaking their own language again. "_It's got something to do with hallucinations and dreams,_" Tsunade said, sort of secret-ish. At this point Jiraiya's eyes widened, "_Oh! So you have them too? What are they like?_"

"_I've been seeing things lately,_" Orochimaru said, as though it was not a big deal at all, "_It's always something horrible. Yesterday in Potions, for a brief second, I had thought the cauldron in front of me were swimming with snakes, but when I looked closer, it was empty, like it always was_." He stopped for a second, then continued, "_And today in Care of Magical creatures, when I looked up at the sky, I saw a glowing skull with a snake coming out of its mouth floating beneath the clouds. So I told Professor Grubby-Plank about it_."

"_And do you know what happened?_" Tsunade giggled, turning to Jiraiya and failed to hide a laugh, "_When she heard what Orochimaru had said, almost the whole class screamed and jerked their heads up, only to find a clear blue sky with no evil skulls drifting among it. Then they just all turned and stared at Orochimaru, and then—_"

Orochimaru gave Tsunade a murderous glare. She obediently shut up.

-------------------------

Meanwhile somewhere far, far away from Scotland, in a so-called "Extremely Confidential Secret Organization of the Case of Kira (aka ECSOCK)" organization somewhere in Japan, two young men were having a nice little conversation about something during their investigation in their office.

One of them leaned back on to his chair and turned to look at his teammate, "I don't know why, Ryusaki, but something just popped into my mind a few seconds ago and I can't get it out of my head."

The second person, who was building a ship out of sugar cubes instead of focusing on his work, glanced at the first man with dark, round eyes, "I would surly like to hear what you've been thinking, Raito-kun," he said, shifting his seat so that the chain which was bounded between the two of them rattled loudly.

"Well, I just kept wondering the true definition of 'hallucination', if you know what I mean."

"To me, hallucination is almost as horrible as dumping a strawberry shortcake into a bin."

"…Are you being sarcastic?"

"No."

"Oh, okay."

"But to be serious, when a person hallucinates, mostly they would see something unpleasant, something unnerving, for example seeing snakes in a cauldron or skulls in the sky."

"Uh…your examples don't need to be that specific."

"I'm not being specific. I just said the first example that popped into my head."

"Oh. Okay. Whatever you say."

"Can I add something Raito-kun?"

"Sure."

"My suspicion of you as Kira has just gained 1 percent."

"What!"

"In my point of view, Kira is a person who can somehow control someone's emotions or mind in order to kill them. This statement roughly fits the other statement in which Kira needs to know that person's face and/or name if he wanted to kill the person. A few minutes ago I was thinking about the possibility of Kira using hallucinations to confuse and control his 'prey'. And a few minutes later, you've questioned me about hallucinations, which seemed to me with 30 percent possibility that you're thinking of some ways to hallucinate people."

"How many times DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I AM NOT KIRA?"

"But this is not coincidence Raito-kun. And by the way you've just gained 1 percent again. That makes 10 percent in total from the start."

"Oh shut up bastard!"

"Don't you know that Kira can easily lose control? 11percent."

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT YOUR DAMN AIR WHOLE UP!"

"See?"

-------------------------

ANYWAYS. Back to Hogwarts.

"_Tell us your story now_," Jiraiya said to Tsunade.

"_I had a dream last night,_" she said, "_I was inside some kind of…dungeon. There were two people inside as well, though they did not seem to have seen me. Then one of them suddenly said something like, 'they deserve suffering, master. All of them.'…_"

At this point she trailed off. The other two stared at her. "_Did you see their faces?_" Jiraiya asked. "No" was the reply.

"_What do they mean by 'they deserve suffering'?_" Jiraiya asked again. "_No one knows_," Orochimaru said, his voice more serious than ever, "_But I don't reckon it's something good._"

"_What's you're point of 'good'_?" Tsunade teased, "_Your eyes are too evil to be good_." Jiraiya nudged her firmly in the ribs. She realized what she had said and quickly apologized, "_Sorry! I-I didn't really mean to—_"

"_It's okay,_" Orochimaru said, forcing a shrug.

Sensing that something isn't going right among the three of them, Jiraiya decided to change the subject. "_Er…want to know about my story?_" he suggested.

"_Go on._"

"_OK, here goes…_" Jiraiya started, fiddling his fingers nervously, "_Well…I know it's quite creepy, and it freaks me out, so don't get too—_" He cleared his throat apologizingly when Tsunade gave him a 'Stop-getting-nervous-all-over-and-get-on- to-the-subject" look.

Jiraiya took a deep breath and continued, "_Not much happened in my dream,_" he said, "_The place was very dark, and somehow I was lying flat on my stomach. When I tried to get up, my body started to ache horribly so I decided to just look around. That's when I saw you._" He pointed to Orochimaru, who frowned. "_Me?_" he said, "_In your dream? Why would I be there?_"

"_Who knows?_" Jiraiya sighed helplessly, "_But that's not my point. My point is that you are standing beside a creepy, hooded figure—_"

"_Oh, not stupid mysterious people again!_" Tsunade sighed frustratedly. "_Just let me finish!_" Jiraiya snapped, then continued, "_And something's quite strange about Orochimaru too. Somehow…your eyes are red. Do you know how creepy you look when your eyes are red?_"

He stopped, and waited for Orochimaru's reply. "_…Is it the Sharingan Eye?_" said Orochimaru hopefully. Jiraiya sweat dropped. "_No, Orochimaru. It is not the Sharingan eye,_" he said, feeling rather bewildered due to the fact that Orochimaru had asked a rather stupid question in which did not seem like Orochimaru's style at all.

Orochimaru just slumped down onto his chair and didn't talk.

"_So…what happened then?_" Tsunade urged Jiraiya to continue. "_Well…the next thing that happened sounded so weird to me,_" Jiraiya shuddered, "_Orochimaru stared at me for a moment, and it's impossible to tell his facial expressions,_ —(Orochimaru leaned closer, rather concerned in what Jiraiya was saying)— _and the next thing I know, he was walking away from me, accompanied by the hooded figure, towards darkness. That was when I sensed something was about to go wrong, something that shouldn't be happening…so I called out your name. _—(He looked at Orochimaru)— _But you ignored me. So I called out your name again…this time, you turned around, and gave me the most inhuman glare I've ever seen…_"

"…_Then I woke up._" He concluded.

After hearing his story, Tsunade blinked, and turned her head towards Orochimaru. She was not surprised to see that his face carved into a frown with his mouth hanging slightly open.

Deep down, Orochimaru was shivering. The first time he'd sensed fear lurking inside his heart, the first time he felt scared, even though he kept telling himself that these dreams and illusions were just coincidence. They have no connection at all. They weren't even real. Nothing to fear of. Absolutely nothing.

And he hoped he was right.

TBC…

-------------------------------- ------------------ --------------------- --------------------

I was just celebrating the birth of the tenth chapter when I suddenly realized that I didn't even do one single question in my science homework T.T sigh…

I've thought of a (rather) random idea a few days ago: I was thinking if I would write a _second_ part for this story. What I mean by 'second' part was that the story will take place after the ending of 'Legendary Sannins and OOTP', which means it will start on Harry's sixth year (aka Half Blood Prince), with Naruto and his friends as the main characters instead of the Sannins. Yet there will still be some influence from the first part. What do you guys think:)

Oh and by the way, please ignore the random DN characters somewhere among this chapter…they're just for fun.


	11. the boy like Naruto and Gaara

Chapter 11:The boy like Naruto and Gaara

The half moon in the night sky was faint, and the clouds weren't moving much. Somewhere far away a wolf howled, and the owls in the owlery shuffled nervously. It was a dark and cold night, in fact it was so dark that the only thing visible was the castle of Hogwarts, in which the light the came out through the windows were warm and comforting.

Orochimaru lied down on the grass beside the lake, glancing up at the magnificent building. He wondered how it took to build this castle…they'd probably used more than a hundred workers to finish this. Yet, he thought, as he studied the structure and designs, what was the purpose…? Sure, it could be more attractive and beautiful…but either way it was just a school!

Orochimaru sat up, staring fixedly at a beautiful snake carved out on one of the castle's walls. Even from a distance, Orochimaru could still see the carving quite clearly. He stared at it for three whole minutes…he knew that face only _too _well…that snake's face, its mouth was curved into a sly grin and its tongue was sticking out, as though mocking its enemy. Then there were its eyes. Although it was carved out of plain dark stones, Orochimaru could see it gleaming. With greed. With evil.

Suddenly flash backs flooded his mind, making him gasp.

It was a bright day in Konoha, all the children in the ninja academy rushed outside to the playing field the moment the bell rang for lunch.

"Hey! Let's play a game of Go!" a boy called to a girl, while placing an old and battered Go board and bowls of black and white stones on to the ground. "Okay!" came the girl's reply as she ran towards her classmate. Several minutes later a small crowd gathered around the Go board and the two players to watch the game.

Orochimaru wanted to watch too, but he knew he couldn't. He needed to 'respect' them, as they would tell him to. So now, in order to be 'respectful', he was seated a far distance from his classmates, in other words, the furthest bench from the playing field.

As he watched, half of the crowd cheered and gave each other high-fives, while the other half groaned in disappointment. Orochimaru could tell that one of the players had won the game.

Something about their attitude made Orochimaru bit his lip. The crowd seemed _happy_. They laughed and told each other jokes, one of them had brought with him some crisps and he offered some to his friends, saying "you're welcome" as they thanked him.

Nobody seemed to have noticed the boy sitting alone at the corner of the playground. But the worst part was, no one seemed to care.

A girl passed by him. Orochimaru waved, but she treated him as though he was a random rock or tree.

Orochimaru had no idea why all of his classmates at school were treating him like that. Sure, his appearance as part-snake was hard to accept, and he knew it. But still…

Someone shrieked, and Orochimaru jerked out of his thoughts, scanning the playground for the source of the sound. He spotted his classmates huddled together, shivering and whimpering at something. Unable to see clearly, Orochimaru stood up from the bench and hurried towards them, ignoring his 'rule' for the first time.

He gasped in shock as he approached. There, hissing severely at the group of children was a gigantic snake, at least 5 feet long. The children were undoubtly horrified, yet no one had the guts to scream for help.

Orochimaru had somehow dealt with snakes before, so he wasn't that scared. Maybe, he thought, maybe if I help them chase away the snake, they will be friends with me!

So that was what he did. He took out his kunai, took a good aim, and flung it gracefully towards the huge snake.

It landed right beside the snake's head, causing it to jump back. Orochimaru's aim was perfect; just right where he wanted it to land. He threatened the snake with more kunai until it retreated a few paces, glaring and hissing menacingly at Orochimaru. Orochimaru glared back. With its eyes gleaming evilly, and yet knowing that he really mean it, the snake hissed and slithered back into the bushes.

The children stared at it and it had completely disappeared, then turned to face Orochimaru. Some of the girls were grateful the snake left, yet the other boys just stared at Orochimaru, their expressions hard to read.

Then, a boy around the age of eight, who seemed to be the leader of the group, stepped up to face Orochimaru.

Orochimaru preferred a 'thanks' from him, just a simple 'thanks', and he would be happy for his whole life. But instead, the boy shot him a disgusted look and spat out the words, "Who needs help from a creature like you!" Orochimaru took a few steps back, shocked through his insults, "What kind of…_thing_ are you anyway? Even the most evil, most gigantic serpent fled when it sees you!"

He stepped closer, so his face was close to Orochimaru's, "_You're probably worse than evil, nobody in their right mind would want a reptile's tongue for one of his body parts._" He hissed the words coldly and walked away towards the building, followed by his nervous looking gang.

Orochimaru just stood there, paralyzed, for…how long? He did not know, and he didn't bother to care.

YES I know this is VEEERRRRYY short, yet I have so much homework to do that it's quite a miracle I still have time to right this. This is only part 1 of chapter 11 though, so it's actually not that short.


	12. part 2 of chapter 11

Whew…I've finished it…here's part 2 of chapter 11. But I think it won't be as good as the last chapters though…TT sigh…

Part 2

To tell the truth, Konoha could be his living nightmare if he hadn't met Jiraiya and Tsunade. They were his only friends, they were the only ones that cared about him, and Orochimaru bit his lip as he stared once again at the magnificent castle.

His teammates would surely be delighted if Professor McGonagall announced the staff had found a way to lead them back to where they belong (maybe Tsunade would actually cry). But would he, himself, be happy as well? Would he _really _want to see the familiar buildings in Konoha, or the people that walked among the streets? Surely though, he would love to see his sensei. He really missed him. Yet……Orochimaru never liked Konoha. Set aside his teammates and Sarutobi, he had absolutely no family, friends, nor people that respected him—

"Orochimaru? Hey Orochimaru!"

Snapping back into reality, Orochimaru spun around and saw, to his surprise, that Tsunade was running towards him. "Be quiet!" he whispered as Tsunade approached, "It's 2 am in the morning and we're not supposed to leave our dormitories remember?" Tsunade just snorted, "If you've known better, then why are _you_ out of your bed?"

Orochimaru flopped down onto the grass beside her. "It's nothing," he said, "I just had a hard time falling asleep due to the hideous snores made by my baka roommates, so I sneaked out to inhale some fresh air."

A moment of silence passed, and Tsunade spoke, "I really hope we can go home as soon as possible…I miss sensei so much…" Orochimaru stared at the grass, then turned to face her, "By the way, did Professor McGonagall even do anything? I mean, it's been like, what, nearly four months since we came to Hogwarts, and she was supposed to help us contact our village, right?"

With this, however, Tsunade grinned happily. "She just informed me today at lunch!" She said, "She said that she had figured out a way, to help us communicate with someone from our village, especially our sensei!"

Orochimaru's eyes were wide with surprise; he didn't know McGonagall had figured something out already. "Communicating…" he murmured, "You mean we use some sort of magical devices? Or just our minds, or spirits and stuff like that?"

Tsunade beamed, "Remember that crystal ball lesson we had during Divination? And remember one time when we peeped into sensei's secret cupboard? Do you remember what was inside?"

Orochimaru racked his brain. "Err…I do remember…" he face grew a bit red, "I do remember some 18+ magazines…" Tsunade took a deep breath, thinking that it was definitely Jiraiya's fault for "polluting" her sensei. "No, Orochimaru…I don't mean those…I mean—" But Orochimaru cut her off, "Oh I remember now! His crystal ball is what you're talking about right?"

Tsunade nodded and smiled, "Yeah! And maybe, just maybe, if we had the chance to know how to use it, maybe we could talk to sensei! Isn't that great?" She jumped on to her feet and did a victory hand sign toward the night sky. "We're going to see sensei again!" She announced happily. Orochimaru just smiled, but didn't say anything.

Leaves rustled. A twig snapped. And before the clumsy spy behind the bushes even knew it, Orochimaru had suddenly appeared right in front him, strong hands grasping his neck.

"Who are you?" Orochimaru demanded to the figure while Tsunade appeared beside him in shock, "Your spying skills are so poor that even a child may be better than you."

The figure twisted and whimpered as Tsunade gasped, "Oh! So it was you all the time! I knew it! I've always sensed something in the bushes and I was right." She glared at the figure and pulled out her kunai. "Who are you?" she snapped.

The figure's mouth quivered. To Orochimaru and Tsunade, he was rather fat and his back was a little hunched. He wore tattered robes and old boots that seemed to have rotted a decade ago. But strange as ever, as Orochimaru looked at his left (or is it right?) hand, he saw that instead of a normal flesh-covered hand, it was made out of metal. Somehow it reminded him of the Demon clan that he and his teammates once fought against, in which all of their hands where made out of metal. _(A/N: Haha I'm just being random. Got this idea from the Demon Brothers in the early episodes XD)_

"Answer me!" Orochimaru snapped.

Cold sweat broke through his forehead as Wormtail stuttered, "The n-n-name's W-Wormtail, s-s-sir…" He eyed Tsunade's kunai fearfully and gulped. The two Sannins snickered. "Wormtail? What kind of name is that?" Tsunade said.

Orochimaru jerked harder on his neck (Wormtail flinched), "Anyways, where do you come from and why are you spying on us?"

This time Wormtail started to shiver horribly. His eyes darted from the glaring eyes of Orochimaru to the kunai. "F-f-forgive me, s-s-sir…I-I-I c-can't tell, my m-master said I c-c-can't—"

At this rate he gasped and covered his mouth with his hands. Orochimaru smirked while Tsunade tried hard not to laugh, when she thought of how stubborn this Wormtail guy was.

Orochimaru's smirk grew even wider. "You're master huh? I bet it has got to be that Voldemort guy everyone's afraid of." Wormtail flinched at the name while Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"P-P-Please sir…let me go, I-I-I w-won't do y-you any harm…"

Orochimaru thought about that for a moment, and a brilliant idea came to his mind. "Fine then," he said, as Tsunade turned to him and frowned, "I'll let you go. But tell your master I said: No matter how hard he tries, he can't kill us. He can't even go _near_ us. Because my we're Sannins, Wormtail, and we don't lose to some wizards, however powerful they are. Remember that."

He then ungripped him and pushed him to the ground. Wormtail staggered shakily up to his feet, thinking that he would certainly get it once he went back to where his master was. Tsunade stepped out. "Go," she hissed, "Before we change our mind."

Wormtail gulped and turned himself into a rat, then sped into the forest.

Orochimaru turned to look at Tsunade and teased, "Wow, that last sentence of yours sure is threatening enough." Tsunade smiled, "I steal lines from people you know."

---------------- ------------------------ ------------------- ------------------ ---------------------------

Harry's sudden scream had caused all four of his roommates to fall off their beds in shock. Ron, Dean, and Neville scurried over to Harry's bed, while Seamus muttered something about alarm clocks as he got to his feet.

"Mate! What's wrong with you? Did you have those nightmares again?" Ron asked as he looked at Harry, whose hair was way messier than usual and his pajamas were horribly twisted. Harry spun around to face Ron, and pointed a shaky finger at him. "I-I saw it!" he said, "It's your dad Ron! He's been attacked!"

This sudden movement of Harry's made Ron unable to speak for a while. "Wha—?"

"RON!" Harry shouted, his voice trembling, "Hurry! We need to go save your dad! He's bleeding horribly! HURRY! Before it's too late!"

"I-I'll go get Professor McGonagall!" Neville shouted as he sped out of the room, and returning a moment later accompanied by Professor McGonagall. "Can you all please tell me what had happened here?" she asked urgently.

---------------------------- ------------------------------ ----------------------------- ------------------

Orochimaru's POV

Yes. I was so sure I'd heard a faint scream somewhere inside the castle. Yet no matter how I asked her, Tsunade just kept on saying she didn't hear anything. Oh well, maybe her hearing wasn't as good as mine.

Tsunade sighed. "Well, if you kept on saying you heard something, why don't we go check it out just in case?" I nodded and followed her back to the castle.

I almost got bumped on when we approached. Harry, the Weaselys and Professor McGonagall came zooming down the hall towards the Headmaster's office. Tsunade and I hid behind a suit of armor just in time before the crowd had a chance to spot us.

What were they doing in the middle of the night?

"Orochimaru, "Tsunade whispered beside me, "What are they doing here?" I frowned. "That's what I'm about to ask you." I said.

I watched as the crowd stopped in front of the Gargoyle. Professor McGonagall said the password and the statue slide open, revealing a spiral staircase. They stepped in one by one and staircase spun them upward.

I hesitated for a moment, the stepped out behind the armor. I stared the Gargoyle and held my breath. For some strange reason, I had the desire to find out what was this about. McGonagall's face looked worried and concerned and so did the others as they approached Dumbledore's office. Something in my mind urged me to go find out, and said I'll be sorry if I don't…

I turned to look at Tsunade. "You want to come?" I asked. Tsunade looked confused, "Where? What do you mean?" I turned back to the Gargoyle. "I don't know why, but I just felt so curious of what's going on in there…do you want to check it out with me?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You? Curious? Wow, that's something I don't know about you. Well, we'd better not, 'cause it's none of our business."

I frowned. "Fine. You don't need to come with me if you don't want to. But I must go. Something inside me told me I would be sorry if I don't."

Tsunade grimaced and sighed, "Ok! Fine! We'll find out together or whatever you want. But what makes you so curious anyway?"

------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------

Weeeee…I've finally finished part 2…..whew….I'm like soooo tired right now/\

Ok, I have a bad news for everyone: **The world's gonna explode!** Haha just kidding. The true bad news is that there's this MAJOR science project coming up and I'm afraid, I'm really sorry to say, that I won't have time to update for (I'm very sure) at least two-and-a-half weeks or a month. I'M REALLY SORRY!!! " I need to get a better grad this term because I almost failed last year"………sigh……….I really hate school….


	13. Grimmauld Place

Chapter 13: Grimmauld Place

Orochimaru and Tsunade stood in front of the Gargoyle. When Tsunade was about to say the password, Orochimaru clasped his hand on her mouth. "Wait," he said, "We'd better not say it, or else the people in there might hear the statue turning." "Then what can we do?" Tsunade asked as Orochimaru released his hand, "I doubt that we can teleport in there…seeing it's the headmaster's office."

"So? Everything works the same here right? Their magic won't work against us."

"But still…you never know."

Orochimaru sighed. "We won't know until we try, right? Come on, we can transform into small animals first and then we will teleport into the headmaster's office, that way no one would spot us." Tsunade hesitated. Really, if they got caught…

"Fine," she finally said, with a defeated expression on her face, "Just try and keep quiet and don't over do things, or else we're done for." The two of them then shut their eyes and did the all too familiar hand signs, and about a second later there was a soft _POOF_ and standing in the middle of the smoke were no longer two teenagers, but one lizard and one ermine.

The next thing they did was quite astonishing and random at the same time. All you could wonder was that how the hell could they manage to do the hand signs for the teleporting jutsu with such…inhuman, fingers? Another poof of smoke and the two sannins had clearly disappeared and appeared back right inside the headmaster's office.

Nobody seemed to have noticed the uninvited guests. Harry, the Weaselys, and Dumbledore were busy huddling against something that Orochimaru, or rather, the lizard, couldn't appear to see. He decided to take a risk.

Tsunade watched in disbelief as her teammate slithered towards the crowd of people and climbed onto Ron's leg and up onto his shoulders. Tsunade held her breath. Luckily Ron didn't seem to notice, so she decided to follow Orochimaru as well.

Orochimaru glanced down from Ron's shoulder, and saw Tsunade the ermine speeding up Fred's pajamas and finally landed inside his shirt pocket. As Orochimaru turned back, he was rather shocked to see that Harry and the others were touching some sort of…weird thing. Then his vision landed on Dumbledore as he spoke softly, "Hold tight everyone. By the count of three. 1…2…" Orochimaru gasped inside him and shut his eyes; he knew something would happen…

"…3." Somehow Dumbledore had paused a little before saying the last letter but it didn't quite matter now. Orochimaru and Tsunade held their breathes as they felt the air squashing on them as though it was not gas but solid. Tsunade held onto Fred's pocket in dear life, while making a mental note to herself that this would be the last time she would ever go and risk her life with Orochimaru.

Tsunade suddenly felt a huge amount of pressure crashing onto her as Fred's feet hit the ground. She then took her chance and leapt off of Fred's pocket and ran for cover, hiding quite securely behind one of the dusty vases._ I wonder where's Orochimaru?_ She thought as she glanced nervously at her surroundings. One thing she was sure about was that whatever that thing did, it had sent them into a dark and gloomy house. Yet the house was fairly large, despite her ermine-sized body.

She was now located inside the kitchen, as she could see there were pots and pans hanging just above the stove and a table standing right in the middle of the kitchen. Tsunade suddenly spun around as a figure approached from behind. It was a lizard, also known as Orochimaru. He raised his head and glanced around to make sure no one was there, then transformed back into his own self. Tsunade did the same and two of them crouched down behind the vase, making as little movement as possible.

"Where do you think we are?" Tsunade whispered as she peered over the top of the vase. "I don't know," Replied Orochimaru, "But one thing for sure: Someone is living in this place." "I have this feeling too," Tsunade said, "but I wonder why Harry and the others were here as well. Are they visiting him or her?"

"It's a guy," Orochimaru said, "I saw him when I leaped off Ron's shoulder. His hair's rather messy and he looked worried when Harry and the others approached." Tsunade turned to him, "Then did you hear what they're talking about?" Orochimaru shook his head, "I was too busy taking cover. But I'm quite curious to know what they're saying as well." Tsunade rolled her eyes. There he goes again with the curious issue.

Footsteps clanked on the floorboards and the two of them immediately shut their mouths. A few seconds later Tsunade felt that the footsteps had stopped somewhere in front the vase. She gulped, but did not risk peeking over the top. As Orochimaru listened, the person in front of them had took out what he assumed to be several glasses from the cupboard and had now started to pour what sounded like liquid in to them.

This action seemed to be taking forever and Orochimaru had started to feel pain in his legs. He shifted his leg as silently as possible into a comfortable position and had almost succeeded when Tsunade attempted to sneeze.

It happened so fast. Orochimaru quickly cover his hand onto Tsunade's nose which caused himself to loose balance and fell onto the floor with a loud 'thud'. Tsunade's heart skipped a beat as she watched her teammate fall onto the floor. She then slowly, turned around and glanced at the man in front them. She was not surprised to see that the man's mouth was hanging open and not noticing that the glass in his hand was overflowing with beer.

The sentence "WHAT THE HELL?!" that came out of his mouth had undoubtly caused all of the people in Grimmauld Place came running and tumbling into the kitchen.

"Sirius! What—?" The rest of Harry's sentence was cut off as he and his friends stopped dead in front of the kitchen. "Tsu-Tsunade…Orochi…what…?" was all Ron could say. Tsunade looked at Orochimaru (who was now cursing himself for being so careless) and shook her head. "It's a long story." She said.

Meanwhile Sirius had somehow managed to recover a little and was now looking at the two Sannins suspiciously. "They are your friends? How did they get here?" he asked. "Yeah," said Fred, "How _did_ you get here?—" "—we didn't even notice." Added George.

"Uh…we kind of changed into animals and climbed onto you guys and followed you here." Orochimaru said everything in one breath and hoped that this information would satisfy them enough.

------------------------- ------------------------------- -------------------------- -------------------

The sun was setting and so was Sarutobi's heart. He sighed as he sat on the bench, clearly not knowing what to do. "Oh, where in the world were you?"

It was about several months ago when Sarutobi found out that his lab equipments were scattered all over the place and that the three of his beloved students were missing.

"…" the second Hokage was quite in a mess when he had heard what had happened, "Do you think there's a reason for them to have disappeared? Perhaps running away?" he asked.

Sarutobi was rather taken aback by this question. "Run away? No! I don't see why they have any reason to do so…"

"Then…they aren't kidnapped are they?"

You would never know what he will say. Sarutobi really wanted to pound the Hokage when he said that, but thought better of it. After all he was Sarutobi's teacher. "They couldn't be kidnapped," he said firmly, "I mean, they're the_ Sannins_, sensei, and I'm sure they would overcome bandits quite easily."

The Hokage looked at him. "Well then, if they were not running away, nor kidnapped, then can you possibly think any ways that had caused their disappearance?" Sarutobi looked helpless. "Well…I…" he stammered, "Well, there must be an explanation to this."

The Hokage sighed. "Anyways, I've already called forward a few ANBU to investigate this case; you don't have to worry too much. I'm sure we would find your students." Sarutobi just nodded. What else could he say?

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I'm so bad in keeping promises…This chapter is so short, you would probably hate me by now.


	14. Helping out part 1

_There goes my part 1 part 2 trick again...I can't help it...I'm way too busy lately, cos there's this Byng Arts Mini School application thingy coming up, and the due date is the day after tomorrow!! Wah!! Gotta hurry! This mini school was found by Lord Byng Secondary (a number 1 ranked school located on the west side of Vancouver muahahaha) and it mainly focus on different kinds of Art, like Visual Arts, Drama, Band etc and of course, you get credits for entering, and it's so much fun. It's hard to enter though. First you have to be interested, and most f all, good at, one of the arts. Then you would need to send in a portfolio and stuff to prove that you're damn good enough to enter, with your past school marks all above C (or else you're most likely to be disqualified)...And the hardest of all, be able to pass all two rounds of qualification which, sadly, I've got kicked out of the list on round two last year :(_

_I've chosen Visual Arts, cos, obviously, I suck at Drama, had no telant on Strings or Band, and V. Arts the only thing I'm good at. I've once considered Literature Arts, and later decided against it. My writting proves to you all -.-"_

**Chapter 14: helping out (part 1)**

"I sensed that if I don't find out what are you guys up to, I'll feel very sorry about it. So...we've decided to follow you and see what was going on." Orochimaru concluded, finally ending their story on why they would be so immature as to poke their noses into other people's business...without even asking first.

As he closed his mouth, the living room fell into a dreadful silence which made the two Sannins rather uneasy. But the most unbearable part was that every single person that was currently presented in the living room appeared as though their eyes were glued onto the newcomers. Half f their mouths were hanging open in disbelief, while the other half carrying a frown on their faces.

A second pasted, and Orochimaru started to feel a bit annoyed. Sure, they might be a bit impolite, but why this reaction? His gaze turned to Sirius, who was staring mostly at him rather than Tsunade, with eyes that were full of mistrust and hatred.

Orochimaru faught back the attempt to glare back at him and turned his gaze away from him instead. Harry, of course, had often mentioned his godfather to him, and so he knew quite well that he hates Slytherins.

However, to his surprise, Sirius was the first to speak, "Good friends of yours, Harry?" he asked, but his tone was icy.

Harry sighed and turned to his godfather, "Well, yes, they are. However they're just staying at Hogwarts for a short period of time because...they're kind of lost. They would go back to their own homeland once they've found a way to contact them." Sirius was obviously unhappy about the two strangers standing before him, yet he made no reaction to express his feelings. His eyes were still locked on Orochimaru. "You said they're friends of yours...even that Slytherin over there?" Orochimaru bared his teeth slightly, and Harry quickly thought of an explanation, "Orochimaru isn't like the other Slytherins, Sirius! He's good, not like Malfoy. He even helped us beat him up when the other Slytherins tried to make fun of us!"

Sirius snorted. He wanted to say "but if that brat's personality's so good, then why would he be sorted intoSlytherin?" But decided against it. Harry turned to face Orochimaru and Tsunade. "I'm sorry guys," he sighed, "But you see, this is more of a secret meeting than anything else..." Tsunade quickly bowed apologizingly, "No! We're the ones to say sorry! We shouldn't have been bothering you!" With that, she glared at Orochimaru,who just snarled and turned his head away, "We'll be leaving now if you don't mind."

Tsunade caught hold of Orochimaru's hand and started dragging him across the room (much to his annoyence), when suddenly a voice called out, "Wait!" The two Sannins turned around and saw the twins grinning back at them. "Why leaving so soon?" Fred grinned, indicateing themto come back in. "We had this brilliant idea--"

"--That would surely help the _Phoenix_--"

"--a lot," George pointed out and turned to face Sirius, "Surely you won't mind would you?" He placed his palms together and did the prayer sign.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Just what the hell's up with you two now?" he grunted, obviously still mad about the fact that Harry had a Slytherin as a friend. Fred and George went to either side of the two Sannins and patted their shoulder (much to Orochimaru's discomfort, again), "As we've said before--"

"They would be a lot of help to our secret organization--"

"Their well-trained spying skills would really come in handy--"

"Because they can land us important informations about our enemy without letting them notice--"

"Since they're well-appreciated ninjas--"

"Whao! Whao! Wait a second!" exclaimed Sirius, "Ninjas? NINJAS? As in those knife-throwing thieves that jumps on rooftops and only exsists in Japanese myths and cartoons?" Orochimaru was about to kill him when Tsunade whispered through clentched teeth, "Hold it Orochimaru! He just doesn't know we exsist, is all. _We_ don't know wizards exsist in the first place too, right?" Yet Orochimaru could still tell that Tsunade too, felt hugely insulted.

Ginny frowned, "Sirius! That's rude! You'll definitly take it back once you've seen how great they were! Those illusions and jutsus they did during the fight with Malfoy were awsome!" Sirius raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "Yeah! And their ninja powers aren't effected by magic! So that's why they can 'apparate' into Dumbledore's office without saying the password!" Added Ron, who imediately shut his mouth, thinking rather or not this statement would please Sirius or make him more angry.

He did neither. But of course, one of his eye did twitch with anger as Ron made his last comment, yet later on he calmed down a little, trying to accept that there _are_ ninjas in this world.

"So, there _are_ ninjas, huh?" Sirius said, smirking slightly. "Got any problems with that?" Orochimaru hissed, thinking that his tone was still an insult towards him. Tsunade shot him a warning glare, and this time it was Sirius's turn to bare his teeth, "Slytherins are good for nothing!"

Harry and Fred were just in time to stop Sirius from jinxing Orochimaru with his wand, while George was just in time to stop _Orochimaru _from completing his handsigns and attack Sirius with his deadly jutsu.

"Can you guys please calm down?" Ginny shouted as Sirius and Orochimaru shruggled out of their friend's grip, "But, Hey...! I mean, Fred and George's idea aren't too bad! If Orochimaru and Tsunade's willing to, maybe they can help us out!"

"That's ridiculous!" Sirius shook his head, still glaring at Orochimaru, "Are we gonna tell all of the organization's informations to two total strangers? And they're ninjas too! How do you know we can trust them?"

"But, Tsuande and Orochimaru are our friends! We can totally trust them, right?" Harry exclaimed as he turned to Tsunade," You guys are willing to help, right? Along with Jiraiya?" Yet Tsunade seemed unsure, "I dunno. Of course we'd be happy to help, but I don't think your god father..." She glanced at her teammate and Harry's godfather, both standing back to back and doing their best to ingore each other. "...you see what I mean?"

Harry and the others understood. It would be rather hard for Sirius to accept that a Slytherin was actually _working_ for the Phoenix, a secret organization found by Dumbledore, that was, obviously, against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, has only good people in it and of course, a Slytherin-free zone.

"Forget it, Tsunade. Let's just go." Orochimaru said, finally managing to keeping his anger down, he moved away from Sirius and headed for the door. Sirius, though, just stood where he was as though something just hit him. "Wait." he called, and Orochimaru stopped, a little surprised that he'd called him back.

"Ya know...I've heard that some ninjas had those really skillful healing methods..." Sirius started, darting his eyes uncertainly and scratching his cheek, "Well...if you're willing to do us a little favor and help cure some one up, then we'll make this even, got it?" Harry and the Weasleys turned to him in surprise, no believing what he just said but absolutely understood what he meant. He was asking Orochimaru and Tsunade to help cure Mr. Weasley!

Tsunade's eyes glittered, seeing that she was a very skillful Kinoichi and would surely be a lot of help. Orochimaru smirked, "So, since when did _you_ know ninjas are powerful medics?" Sirius just shrugged, "Bah! Just seen it in some random anime programms...is all..." Harry's mouth twitched. _Since when did he start watching anime?_

* * *

_By the way, I'm so happy because Serena, a friend of mine, told me that Pirates of the Caribean III has Chinese...or rather, Cantonese pirates in it!! OH Yeah!!!!!!!!! (shouts like inner Sakura) And that hilarious Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun Faht would be in it too!!_

_XDDDDDDDDDD_


	15. part2: Most Dangerous Thing On Earth

Happy New Year guys:) Wishing you another fun and exciting year! As for me…just review :)

Part 2 of Chapter 14: the most Dangerous Thing on Earth

"Ouch! Heh heh…mind the knee ms. nurse, it's kind of fragile right now you know…ow, ow, ow!"

When Orochimaru peered in through the doors, the first thing he saw was Mr. Weasely, propped up against his pillow and complaining that nurses these days were way too rough. The nurse, with her face screwed into a tight and annoyed frown, was trying to re-bandage Mr. Weasely's wound. After wrapping the last strap of bandage around his leg, the nurse stood up and stormed passed Orochimaru and out the door, leaving Mr. Weasely whimpering in his bed.

"_Really_! That…!" Mrs. Weasely breathed angrily as she glanced at the door, while hurrying towards her husband, "Are you okay dear? We could always report her to the office you know."

"Oh it's nothing Molly dear," Mr. Weasely said, "You can't really blame her though, she told me she used to participate in the girl's Rugby team in the Muggle world— as if I know what's a 'Rugby'…probably the name of a poisonous flower…or maybe this secret organization that nobody knows of…"

Mrs. Weasely neither cared nor mind what Rugby meant, but continued to soothe Mr. Weasely as he talked. He suddenly stopped in mid sentence, noticing Tsunade and Orochimaru (and the rest of the people) for the first time. "Ah! Hey Harry!" he beamed and Harry waved back, "Can't believe you guys actually have time to visit me— hi son! –Oh, and are these your new friends?"

He beamed at Orochimaru and Tsunade as well, who returned a nervous bow. Orochimaru had never seen someone so cheery before, especially when they were rather badly injured. And the fact that he didn't even glare at him when he noticed his Slytherin robes (like the others did) clearly surprised the Sannin.

"By the way Author," Sirius said, speaking for the first time since their arrival, "Those two came because they promised me that they would help cure your wound."

Everybody nodded except for Mrs. Weasely, who turned her head with such speed that it was a miracle it didn't crack. "They WHAT?" she exclaimed. It was rather clear that she somewhat disagreed with Muggle healing techniques. It was also clear that either Sirius or the others had informed her about the Sannins lending a helping hand, since they knew very well that Mrs. Weasely would turn down their offer.

But now she didn't seem to have a choice; Tsunade and Orochimaru had come to visit and it would be rather impolite to turn them down. (Plus Mrs. Weasely somehow had quite a hard time resisting Tsunade's pleading puppy-dog eyes.)

Mr. Weasely glanced towards them in surprise. "Cure my wound? Are you kids Healers?" he asked. Orochimaru quickly shook his head, "No, I'm not! But my teammate is." He pointed at Tsunade, who grinned and waved.

"They're ninjas you see," Sirius informed him, "And…you know, they're quite talented in healing too, so you can trust them— at least the Ravenclaw girl, that is."

Orochimaru gave him a glare while Sirius returned it with a smirk.

"Ninjas…ah, where have I heard that word before?" Mr. Weasely tapped his chin as though thinking really hard, "…I saw it somewhere in a Muggle magazine…oh is it some kind of a job, like a gardener or something?"

Orochimaru quickly jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Weasely would NOT be added into his Buddy List. Harry and Ron tried not to laugh while the others (including Tsunade) sweatdropped. "Uh…dad? Ninjas are actually a type of Japanese warriors, except that they usually move around at night and rarely ride horses," Ginny said, casting an apologizing look towards Tsunade and Orochimaru.

"Oh, is it?" started Mr. Weasely.

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"Sarutobi, sir? May I say something?"

An ANBU wearing a bird mask leaned against the table edge while glancing suspiciously at a fallen cauldron. "Yeah, go ahead." Sarutobi replied as he walked towards him, a tired look on his face.

"Don't mean to be rude sir, but this place is a total _mess_." said the ANBU. _Why do people keep stating the obvious?_ Sarutobi sighed with frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes I know, Takahashi-kun. So that's why I believe there's a chance that this is the place where my students went missing, which leads to why we're here right now." He replied without looking up.

The young ANBU felt sort of insulted and edged away from Sarutobi without a word. He walked towards the fallen cauldron and lifted it up without asking first.

"Hey you shouldn't be touching my stuff you know!" Sarutobi warned, "It's my lab and you would never know what would happen if something breaks."

"I know that, sir," said the ANBU without really meaning it. He whipped the cauldron with his finger and held it close to his eyes, "But I do know, sir, that some fragments of heated lemon tree wax and a couple of pieces of dried— some sort of animal— organs are mixed together in one of your cauldrons."

"Is that so? But I always clean them before I leave my lab," Sarutobi hurried towards the young ANBU and examined the 'organ' fragments in his hands. "But these are…dried _owl_ guts." He exclaimed. "Oh, they are?" the surprised ANBU said, "Wow, then as to make things worse…"

"'Never mix dried owl guts into any compound experiment unsupervised', I memorized that quote since I was five," mumbled Sarutobi, as though mixing owl guts with liquid would actually kill you, "Sensei got freaked out when I tried to put some into my water bottle."

"What happened then?" the young ANBU asked.

"Sensei whacked my bottle out of my hand, howled me off my feet, and ran all the way to the Konoha entrance door. He'd even considered crossing the Konoha boundaries until I beg him to stop. It was the first time he'd ever looked this scared." Sarutobi gave a restless laugh, "Geeze, and it was my favorite water bottle too."

"Wow," was all the ANBU could say.

Sarutobi sighed, "It must be my students messing with my stuff, I'm sure of that."

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**Hogwarts.**

Jiraiya sat on a bench somewhere in front of a lake, fuming. He, along with some other teachers, found out that two of the Sannins were missing this morning. Jiraiya should have guessed; Tsunade and Orochimaru MUST have followed Harry and Weasely brothers onto whatever they were doing last night. He knew something was going on because McGonagall knocked on their door before Jiraiya could even fall asleep, signaling Fred and George to come out.

"The Headmaster wants to see you boys," was all she had said before Fred had closed the door. Jiraiya would have quietly followed, but the sleepiness had made him decide against it.

All the fun he had missed! He grunted angrily as he set out towards the forest, thinking that maybe taking a hike wouldn't be too bad. He glanced around to make sure that the seventh years eating lunch in front of the lake wouldn't notice him sneaking off.

He walked deeper into in the forest, but at the same time checking if he was still within eyesight of the castle.

Something rustled behind him. Jiraiya quickly spun around and grasped the handle of his kunai.

Someone— or rather, a whole bunch of people— stepped out from behind the trees, holding their wands straight at Jiraiya. There were at least ten of them.

"_Death Eaters_…!"Jiraiya breathed out the words as his eyes widen. There was almost no gap for him to run, seeing that all ten Death Eaters were surrounding him from every side. Jiraiya glanced towards the castle. It would be foolish and useless to call for help.

Then one of the Death Eaters spoke, his voice slightly muffled behind his mask, "_Give one of your companions, the Slytherin, to us. Now._"

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Whooooooo Cliff hanger XD

And as to what happened to Sarutobi's water bottle…it exploded, shattering the will-be Second Hakage with glass, who had just came back form shopping :)

By the way, school's gonna start this coming Monday, and I'm SO NOT in the mood of celebrating it :(


	16. all because of the Wolfsbane potion

Chapter 16:

For the love of Mother Nature, Please review:) I've never gotten this much reviews in my life. Thank you all!!!!! hugs

Here's chapter 16. (Yet everybody knows it's supposed to be chapter 15. I'm good with it though.)

Just finished my Mid Year exam by the way. (whew!)

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"You want…who?" Jiraiya asked as he took several steps back from the Death Eaters, while trying not to trip on his own foot as he walked. Sensing the boy's emotions, the Death Eaters tightened the circle, making sure that the ninja wouldn't have a chance to slip through.

"Your little snake companion, boy. Tell us where he is." One of them spoke, the grey eyes behind his mask cold as ever.

_Orochimaru?_ Jiraiya thought, locking the Death Eater's eyes with his own. He gritted his teeth. "What do you want with him?" he demanded as he grasped more tightly around his kunai, ready to strike in case they decided to attack.

The eyes behind the awful mask narrowed, "Perhaps it is not our master's own wish to inform us either." He raised his wand a little higher so it was pointed directly between Jiraiya's eyes. Jiraiya didn't even twitch; he continued to look straight at the Death Eater's eyes. He sneered behind his mask and stepped a little closer, "Yet we all, obviously, know what the Dark Lord is targeting at, so if you'll please be so kind as to tell us where your little friend is and we would promise not to hurt—"

A huge force hit him square in the chest and sent him crashing into a tree, which gave a ear splitting CRACK and split almost halfway into two, triggering a fair amount of splinters, dust, and dirt into the air.

All of the Death Eaters gasped, and gasped again when the dust cleared and right under the broken tree lay the badly injured Death Eater— or rather— Lucius Malfoy, who was now undoubtly coughing out blood and gasping for breath. "You…!" he wheezed in pain as Jiraiya stepped out in front of him, fist clenched and teeth bared severely.

"You'll get more than three broken ribs if you DARED to threaten me and friends with your pathetic wands!" Jiraiya shouted and Lucius shifted stiffly as he winced and coughed out more blood. Another Death Eater knelt beside him and helped him get up; Lucius glared at him but accept his help.

Jiraiya glowered at Lucius as he leaned against the tree trunk and smirked, "A wrong move you've made, ninja," despite the pain, his eyes glowed in excitement, "attacking a Death Eater, that is. Now it seems we have no choice but to force the information out of you."

"Take this, brat! _Crucio_!" A Death Eater shouted as he jerked his wand towards Jiraiya while chanting the Unforgivable curse. Jiraiya jumped out of the way in time as he grimaced at the name of the spell. He knew the feeling of Crucio only too well.

"Get him!" More Death Eaters charged towards the young ninja, firing all sorts of jinx and hexes and him as he desperately dodged all of them just in time. Jiraiya landed on a tree stump and tried to catch his breath, but after a few seconds he had to start running again as he saw a Death Eater fire a Following jinx at him. The purpose of the jinx was, of course, to follow whoever it was commanded to follow, and wouldn't stop until it had hit its target.

Jiraiya panted as he jumped from tree to tree, trying to throw off the jinx, but it just wouldn't quit chasing him. Jiraiya gritted his teeth miserably as he did his best to do the hand signs for the Kage Bunshin Jutsu; he would only hope that the jinx would decide to follow his clone.

The hand signs completed and immediately four clones were produced with puffs of smoke, while Jiraiya himself quickly did a back flip to get out of the way just in time before an explosion was heard within centimeters of his own ear.

"Damn it! It just missed him!" A Death Eater furiously fired another killing curse and laughed in triumph when it hit one of Jiraiyas, expecting to see him get slashed into bits, but instead, to his great disappointment, the Jiraiya yelled and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Another Death Eater whacked him furiously in the head with his wand, "It's only a stupid clone of his, you fool! Next time keep track of the real one before firing any spells!" The other turned towards him and yanked his partner's collar, "You dare command me what to do?!" he bellowed behind his mask, and his partner bellowed back, "As if I'm afraid to!" And they broke into a fight.

The other Death Eaters, including Lucius, watched and sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking that those two would surely never get along. Meanwhile, on top of a low tree, Jiraiya surveyed the whole scene and smirked. They would never learn, he thought bitterly as his smile vanished and his mind flowed back onto what Harry had told him about Death Eaters:

"_When a wizard goes over to the dark side there's nothing and no one matters to them anymore. At least that was what Hagrid told me."_

"So, a Death Eater is always a Death Eater, there would be no way around it to make them feel sorry for what they had done, let alone coming back to the light side." That was his conclusion ever since then.

So now it would be the right time to finish them of.

Jiraiya concentrated most of his remaining chakra on both of his hands as he jumped down from the tree, taking the Death Eaters by surprise. "I've never intend to kill," he announced, his expression as serious as ever, "but seeing that you whole lot had taken the wrong path on purpose, and selecting the wrong things to do without regret, I wouldn't feel sorry for myself if I've decided to end the life of a pure evil being." Biting his tongue, he put his chakra-filled hands together and the wind around him swirled as he concentrated his chakra into a spinning ball.

It was undoubtly his ever famous move: _Rasengan, the spinning ball of chakra._

Then he charged. The swirling ball in his right hand ever so menacing, the wind billowed as he sprinted towards one of the arguing Death Eaters. He, along with the others, froze on the spot as the blinding light approached them ever so fast. Jiraiya got closer and closer every second, until he was close enough to plunge his hand right into the black robes of the paralyzed Death Eater.

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Snape was definitely having the mist irritating moment in his life as he walked down the great halls of Hogwarts towards the green house behind the castle. The moon, as everybody could see, was getting fuller and fuller at the moment and if it was not for a bunch of first years in front of the lake last night having a heated (and pathetic) argument about exactly how much Chinese moon cakes would be able to fit into the moon, in which led to Severus passing by to glance up at the night sky, and almost swore loudly when he'd figured how stupid he was as to forget the Wolfsbane potion for Remus Lupin, well…the result would probably be a whole lot of people with werewolf bites and scratches lying miserably at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

The full moon would precisely approach in two days, so Snape had, precisely, two days to brew the potion for his childhood classmate. Snape cursed and grimaced at this thought as he rummaged through the shelves. Why do I have to be stuck with this? Why does it have to be that wolfish pet of James Potter's I have to serve? Why is my life so miserable? Why won't Dumbledore employ someone other then me to brew the potion for him? AND WHY IS ALL THE WOLFSBANE GONE?

The Potions Master stared at the empty jar in disbelief. In order to brew a perfect Wolfsbane potion, the most important ingredient you need was: a handful of Wolfsbane. (A/N: At least that was what I've read in Veritaserum. com) Snape took some deep breathes, and after he had— sort of— successfully calmed himself down, he grabbed one of the small flasks on the shelf, thinking that surely Professor Sprout would have some spare Wolfsbane in store. 

He walked into the green house without knocking first and surveyed the room. "Sprout, I need the spare Wolfsbane for—"

"Professor Sprout, thank you," Professor Sprout said irritably as she emerged from behind a glass door, carrying a plant with enormous teeth and writings on the pot that says: Eat me. "For the sake of those Weasely twins!" she huffed, removing the carnivorous plant with her gloves (in which it gave a little shriek) and transporting it into a new pot that has no writing on it whatsoever, "Never appreciates the beauty of plants! Placed one of these in front of Mrs. Norris and scared the soul out of her."

Snape tapped his foot impatiently as he watched Professor Sprout fed some of those chopped up Flobberworms into the mouth of the plant, "Look, I need 20ml of Wolfsbane for—"

"— The Wolfsbane potion, I know Severus. You don't have to remind me twice," Professor Sprout cut in on him and before Severus could open his mouth, she cut in on him again, "I'm not so sure if there are any left though, try checking the lower drawer of the cabinet."

Severus walked over to the cabinet and pulled open the lower drawer, different scents of herbs filled his nose as he checked; no Wolfsbane whatsoever. Severus wanted to swear loudly but thought better about it.

He straightened up frustratingly, said "No Wolfsbane." To Professor Sprout and stormed out the door.

"You know there is some in the edges of the Forbidden Forest," Professor Sprout's voice called after him and he growled. It would mean he would have to go into that gloomy forest without a choice. Not that he hated gloomy places.

He went down the hill, passed Hagrid's little hut and started towards the Forbidden Forest. He walked in a bit deeper as he looked closely at everything around him, in case he overlooked the things he was looking for. After a minute or so he stopped walking and peered down on a funny looking herb growing from the ground. It seemed to be dying, seeing that it was all shriveled up and had horrible yellowish spots splattered all over it.

Severus sighed. It was the Wolfsbane alright. He pulled the whole thing out of its soil and stored it inside his waist bag. He was about to pull on another bunch of Wolfsbane when he heard something that sent a chill that ran all the way down to his spine; He was very sure he had heard an ear sickening, splitting sound, a thud, and distant screams.

The Potions master dropped the remaining Wolfsbane and looked around. Cling, clang…clang…What the _bloody _hell was that? Severus scowled, and ran towards his right while trying to hear as many unusual bits of sound as he could. Nothing more than chirping of birds now…

After a minute or so, he slowed into a quick walk…And his jaw almost dropped when trees ahead suddenly cleared in front of him.

Tree trunks torn into half, dirt and mud spilling all over the place, pieces of wood, leaves, and…fragments of black colored fabric littered all around the clearing, as though a tornado had just approached and had somehow shred all the things it could find into pieces. But there were more than just litter; everywhere, especially the broken tree in front of Severus was splattered in droplets of scarlet blood. Snape held his breathe and surveyed the scene. Merlin's beard…_is that an arm?_

He had no trouble showing his revolted face as he walked towards the severed arm. Then he saw it: The tattoo. The unpleasant mark that slithered across the arm was only way too familiar for the ex-Death Eater as he poked it and shivered; no kidding, it was a real arm. "Why the bloody hell would a Death Eater's arm be lying on the ground?" He muttered to himself as he stood up, unable to come up with an explanation. No way would any Death Eater be able to cross through the shield charm outside Hogwarts.

Another scream. Yet louder this time.

While cursing under his breath, Severus turned around and ran towards the direction where the scream had come and discovered later on that the path he was running on was as torn out looking as ever, as though a gigantic earthworm had just eaten its way through.

Snape had totally forgotten about the Wolfsbane potion as he turned left and suddenly stopped dead at his tracks. The torn bushes and trees had opened into another clearing, yet slightly smaller than the last one. The damage, though, was gigantic.

Six, or rather, five and three quarter Death Eaters (seeing that one of them had his right leg severed) were desperately trying to defend themselves from…Severus inhaled a sharp breath as he discovered who it was. Jiraiya, whose front and sleeves were covered in blood, was trying to break through the shield charm in which a Death Eater had cast. Two Death Eaters each fired a jinx and had unfortunately hit Jiraiya's shoulders, which poured out a fair amount of blood onto the ground. Jiraiya choked and landed on his feet, swaying a little as he did so.

The Death Eater shouted in triumph and fired another jinx. Snape, who was now hidden behind a tree in case the Death Eaters spotted him, recognized the voice as Avery's. Severus started to panic as he watched Jiraiya desperately dodging to jinx, only to get weaker and weaker as he threw ten shuriken at once with all his might. One of them hit a Death Eater in the eye, who screamed in pain and collapsed.

The Potion master's mind swirled. A whole bunch of Death Eaters fighting one of those ninjas…and it was not even that Slytherin kid. He mind then flew back onto their last Death Eater meeting, in which Voldemort had somehow mentioned about wanting that Slytherin ninja. Severus had also remembered that the Dark Lord had ask him to 'deliver' Orochimaru to him, but he refused, lying that he had seen what the ninja could do and it would have to take more than one Death Eater to handle him.

So this was what the Dark Lord had planned to do, Severus thought bitterly as he watched another Death Eater fall over, send a whole bunch of them here and kidnap the Slytherin…but why was the Gryffindor here instead of his companion?

Jiraiya was obviously losing, and Severus could see it. If he goes on like this, he would end up dead. But how could he possibly stop the fight and save that stubborn ninja from dying? He surveyed the scene once more and his heart skipped a beat.

And how can I possibly get him out of trouble when Lucius is just a few paces in font of me?

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Ha-ha I'm surprised. The chapter is long :) And there is only one scene shift too sweat drop

Yes, and as you can see, I'm one of those people that supports Severy :) And it would certainly ruin my life if he turns out to be pure evil in book 7 "


	17. Hato

This chapter is supposed to be labeled 'Chapter 17', but then it turned out to be chapter 18 and everybody knows why -.- (Claps hands together as though nothing had happened) Okay! So here's Chapter 18!

Chapter 18: Hato

Tsunade let out a sigh of satisfaction as she skillfully unwrapped the bandages that were tied loosely onto Mr. Weasely's leg. The bandages, Harry thought as he stood beside his bed, smelled strongly of wild, strange herbs. It was weird, because when the bandages were wrapped up around the leg, no such smell had come floating out, but once removed, the whole room was so full of the smell that it almost made Harry's eyes water.

"Where'd all this smell come from?" Ron winced as he inhaled a whole lot of what he assumed to be mint-scented gas, covering his mouth as he sneezed.

"From the bandages," Tsunade said simply without looking up, "it is soaked between wet herbs and when it dries, it doesn't leave any trail of smell whatsoever…"

"But how come it…?" Sirius started, but Tsunade interrupted him, "Once you've wrapped it up on the wound, you would then heat up your chakra slightly higher than your body temperature and send it from your palms into the bandages. The nutrition of the herbs absorbed by the bandages would react from the heat and start to do its job, in other words, heal up the wounds."

"And it heals up so fast…!" Mrs. Weasely, for the first time, sound convinced as she pointed her finger at her husband's leg. The snake-bitten wound used to be a dark, ugly shade of red and green since it was rather poisonous, and Mr. Weasely had of course suffered a lot from it even through skillful Healer healing techniques. But now, everyone could only gasp and blink; the wound, they saw, was almost…not a wound at all, mind you. It had almost completely healed up, with only a faint, bruise-like mark where the snake had bitten into and a light shade of red around it.

Mr. Weasely had never been this happy in all his life, not even when once, when he was still in his early thirties, rode a motorbike for about 30 seconds and was still bouncing up and down excitedly two weeks later. He was now once again, fascinated by Muggle healing techniques.

"Just…wonderful…" He gasped and poked at his almost-healed leg as though it was some kind of holy object, "Incredible…it had healed up so much in just half an hour!"

Tsunade beamed as she swelled with pride. Standing beside her, Orochimaru rolled his eyes. "Might as well tell them that every person would have to master this extremely easy technique in order to qualify for the Genin level?" He muttered sarcastically. Tsunade ignored him.

Fred tapped at her shoulder cheerfully, "Say, do you think—"

"You could do that again right now—"

"So that dad could be fully cured—"

"By the next hour?" George finished his sentence and glanced hopefully at Tsunade. Yet to his disappointment, she shook her head, "It won't be healthy if you do that. Once per day, that's the maximum."

But then she added, "So that means Mr. Weasely will be up and about by tomorrow night."

This piece of information had undoubtly brightened up the Weasely's lives.

Few moments later the Weaselys (excluding Mr. Weasely), Harry, and Sirius were back in Grimmauld place, all standing in front of the fireplace. The fire was long gone of course, and the only things left were black, dusty ashes and burnt out logs.

"So," Harry stood out as though he was going to make a speech, "Tsunade has cured Mr. Weasely, can you guys get along now?" He glanced at Orochimaru and Sirius. They snorted and turned their heads away at the same time. Tsunade sighed, "Orochimaru…"

But Sirius cut in grumpily, "Since when had they successfully cured Author Weasely? That Ravenclaw girl just said that technique had to be used again tomorrow!" And Orochimaru added, "Plus every word he said seemed to be an insult towards me. He was lucky: I would have sawed anybody in half when they even _dare_ to insult me."

Before Tsunade could warn him for his language, Sirius had spun around angrily and leaned towards Orochimaru's face, sneering, "Oh, so you didn't saw me in half, probably because you were afraid you would fail to do so and got hexed by me instead?" Orochimaru immediately grabbed Sirius's collar, his golden eyes flashing dangerously, "YOU DARE CALL ME A COWARD?" He yelled at his face, putting his hands together to make hand signs during the process.

"SINCE WHEN DID I CALL YOU A COWARD? I JUST SAID YOU WERE AFRAID!" Sirius yelled back as he dug his hand inside his robes, searching for his wand.

"'COWARD' AND 'AFRAID' ARE THE SAME THING _BAKA_!"

"IT IS NOT THE EXACT SAME THING IDIOT! AND WHAT WAS _THAT_ WORD SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

"YOU JUST SAID THAT YOURSELF _TEME_!" Orochimaru had already finished his extremely complicated hand signs…and if the hand signs are complicated, that means the Jutsu would be rather deadly.

Meanwhile the others were staring helplessly at the two arguing people, while Tsunade and Harry were desperately trying to stop either side from attacking each other. "STOP IT OROCHIMARU!" Tsunade bellowed as she quickly took hold of Orochimaru's arm firmly so that he wouldn't be able to flung his arm and send a katana flying out from inside his sleeve and shoot Sirius to death.

"That snake-bastard—!" Sirius growled as he had finally calmed down. Harry, who had successfully taken hold of Sirius's wand (in case he would use it to attack Orochimaru), sighed with relief.

Orochimaru struggled out of Tsunade's grip and marched angrily towards the fireplace, grabbed a nearby jar he assumed to be Floo powder, and sprinkled some green dust into the fireplace. The fireplace immediately burst into green flames.

Orochimaru had often heard about Harry and the others traveling by Floo powder before, so he had no problem using it now. "Come on, Tsunade. We have to go back to Hogwarts in case Jiraiya has started to worry about us," Orochimaru muttered as he stepped into the flames, closely followed by Tsunade. Orochimaru grimaced; even he knew how to travel by Floo powder, he had certainly hated it. It was all dusty and dirty and he was quite sure that he would have to take a bath immediately or else the soot might not come off. But Floo powder was the fastest method back to Hogwarts, and this he couldn't argue.

"Hogwarts!" He said loud and clear. Suddenly Orochimaru felt all tensed up, and before the green flames had swallowed him up and send him swirling trough nothing, he saw Mrs. Weasely and the others greet him good bye, then he vanished right before their eyes.

The next thing Orochimaru knew was that he had somehow tumbled out of another fireplace and landed head-first onto the cold stone floor. He looked up and he was quite sure that he had arrived at Hogwarts, since he had, with awful luck, landed right in to Umbridge's office.

In fact, Umbridge herself was staring at him right now, with bulging eyes and gasping mouth; she didn't expect someone would actually fall out of her fireplace. Orochimaru blinked and stood up, wiping dust and soot from his robes and letting them land onto Umbridge's office without hesitation.

There was another 'Thud' inside the fireplace and Umbridge shrieked while Tsunade came stumbling out of it and landed awkwardly on the carpet. "That's one dirty trip all right," she coughed and mumbled to Orochimaru, quite unaware that there was actually a third person inside the room. "By the way," she added, "I've promised them I'll go back tomorrow, to cure the rest of the wound. It's up to you if you want to come or not." Orochimaru headed for the door without saying anything, and treating Umbridge as though she was a piece of wallpaper stuck to the wall (not that it made a huge difference of course). Tsunade followed and closed the door behind her, leaving a trail of soot and a still gasping Umbridge inside the room.

-------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------- ---------

The first side was safe, yet the other side…was probably in 'mortal peril'. Jiraiya had currently defeated six of the Death Eaters in the forest, yet even he was quite sure that the chance of winning would be slim. He had almost used up all of his chakra and now, for the first time, he felt fear. Pure fear. He remembered his Sensei had told him that once a ninja had used up all of his chakra, his would die…and his death won't be at all pleasant.

He blocked a hex sent by one of the Death Eaters with his remaining chakra and dug his hand into his weapon pack, feeling for a kunai. Yet his heart sank when his hand felt nothing except for clothe. _Damn it, did I use up all my weapons already?_ Jiraiya thought angrily as he send a Death Eater a flying kick, hitting him on the neck but without knocking him out; this proved it. Jiraiya was losing badly because of lack of chakra.

Meanwhile the Potions Master was still lurking behind the tree, his mind racing. He could surely knock some Death Eaters out with his wand, yet the risk was too much. The curses would be seen and _he_ would be seen as well, and if Lucius had spotted him hexing his own comrades and told the Dark Lord about it…Severus wouldn't even think what would happen next.

He took a deep breath and raised his wand, pointing it straight at Malfoy; he was the easiest target. Maybe the other Death Eaters wouldn't notice he had knocked Lucius out since they were busy fighting. The chance was low but if this worked, all he had to do was jinx the other three, get their memory erased, bring along that ninja and get the hell out of here.

Severus mentally counted to three, then—

"Severus?"

He stumbled and his heart skipped a beat and for a moment he thought Lucius had spotted him. He spun around and saw, with disbelief, that someone was standing right behind him, and the 'someone' was one of his least favorites— Remus Lupin.

As for how did he get here, Severus never knew. The only thing he was certain was that the werewolf was unmistakably out of breath, leaning against a tree and gasping for air as though he had just participated in the Marathon (not that Severus knew what Marathon was, of course). Remus was staring from him to the fighting scene with a confused expression on his face.

"What are you doing here?" Severus demanded, yet trying his best to keep his voice down into a whisper. For a fleeting moment he thought Lucius had turned his head around suspiciously as though he had heard something unusual behind the trees, so he quickly pulled at Remus's collar and hid the bewildered werewolf behind a huge tree trunk. "Tell me what are you doing here!" he demanded furiously again; he had never hated the werewolf this much for all his life.

"Why is there…Death Eaters and blood and…" Remus looked incredibly lost.

"_Answer me_!"

Lupin inhaled a breath, glanced at his old school mate confusingly and answered, "I came to Hogwarts to collect my potion, obviously, yet I couldn't find you inside your office but then I saw something through your window…" Severus assumed it to be the explosion cause by that white haired ninja.

"So I came here, and now…" Remus's eyes darted across the bloody scene and grimaced, "What the hell's going on here? Who's that kid?" Severus sighed, "It's a long story," he muttered and he released Remus's collar and took a glance at Jiraiya. If he didn't do something now…

"Look," he turned and faced Remus again, "Try and find a way to get that kid out of here without being seen while I'm taking care of Lucius over there, and if you make any mistake," he glared at Remus menacingly, "I'm going to kill you."

Severus's command seemed impossible, Remus thought depressingly as he edged behind the tree trunk, trying to take a good look at what was going on out there. His head poked out, and froze.

For the next second on, Remus saw himself as the most unfortunate person in the world. Lucius had just chose that moment to turn his head around, looking straight at Remus, and his eyes widen with surprise. Remus gasped and a cold chill ran down his spine and he quickly jerked his head back behind the tree. _Severus's so going to kill me now_, he thought as his forehead started to sweat.

Unfortunately for him, again, Severus had noticed Remus's strange reaction and suspected that nothing good had happened. "Why are you—" he started, but a jet of green light broke his sentence as it soared past him inches away. Yes, nothing good had happened.

"Who's there?" Lucius's voice bellowed as he held up his wand, his other hand supporting himself as he stood up, leaning against a tree. The other Death Eaters, including Jiraiya, stopped for a moment when they heard his voice.

Severus had to act fast; he stepped out from behind the tree and hit Lucius with a spell. The blond was taken by surprise as he fell onto the ground and was knock out cold, but Severus wasn't sure if Lucius had seen his face before he fell, so he quickly raised his wand again and did a spell, erasing most of Lucius's current memories, hoping that he wouldn't remember a thing when he wakes up.

He felt a gust of wind by his side and he turned his head around to see Remus speeding past him, his wand raised, and hexing the Death Eaters as fast as he could while he took hold of Jiraiya's collar and dragged him all the way back. Jiraiya of course, was rather surprised. A Death Eater had seen what was wrong and he lashed out, trying to grab Remus's robes. Jiraiya quickly kicked at the Death Eater and he fell backwards, stumbling across the ground.

With Lucius down and his memories erased, Severus still felt rather uneasy as he ran as quickly as he could through the path he had first arrived. What if the other Death Eaters had seen him? When he shot Lucius, he had covered most of his face with his robes, yet there was still a chance someone other than Remus and Jiraiya would spot him. He looked behind him, and was relived and angry at precisely the same time; he was relieved that that brat and the werewolf were close behind, and the Death Eaters nowhere to be seen; and he was really furious when he saw Remus's face, probably because that damn werewolf had screwed the whole thing up.

But most importantly, he would have to have a word with that ninja once they were safely inside the school.


	18. Winter

Hope you guys have a **lovely** spring break! Or at least, a spring break that does not include runny noses and spinning heads…I'm experiencing this frustrating moment right now with several packs of tissue beside me just in case, mind you…

-Sniffs blocked nose- By the way, I'm thinking about adding an original character (or OC or whatever you guys call it) into the story, and, it's a girl from the Shinobi world. Please tell me what you think, I would much appreciate it :) Feel free to include some color…er…appearance facts about her. You know, color of pupils, hair and stuff like that. Don't bother to think about other details about her though, just the colors. :D –bows-

P.S (I'll reveal more about her in next chapter's A/N).

P.S again: A little something from me, the VERY generous author, muahahahaha:

(I can't put the link here so you'll have to type it yourself)

http**-colon--slash--slash-**wma**-dot-**mtvtop**-dot-**net**-slash-**07CS12007**-slash-**mtvtop**-underscore-**57**-slash-**yuirost06**-slash-**001**-dot-**wma

**Do not type in the Hyphens. All the symbols are already typed out in letters. Hope it'll work :)**

'Rolling Star', a magnificent song, and the beat really makes you dance! Sang by one of my favorite Japanese singers: YUI Ibuki!! I mean, I really like her voice, so I couldn't really resist putting this up and sharing it with you. Though of course, I was…wondering if this is against the rules…if it is, then I'll delete it.

Chapter 19: でも現実は日々トラブッてたまに悔やんだりしてる

(But in reality there's such daily trouble that I sometimes regret.)

(…don't ask.)

The white haired ninja stood in front of the magnificent stone gargoyle and gingerly did the hand signs. Snape had, of course, told him the password for the gargoyle before sending him to the entrance of Dumbledore's office, yet Jiraiya was too lazy to use it anyways.

Puffs of smoke erupted all around him and suddenly he was standing steadily in front of Dumbledore's well-polished door. Jiraiya nervously knocked on it.

"Come in," An old voice called out.

Jiraiya inhaled a breath, and, pushing the door open, he suddenly thought about Umbridge's office, where the sickly-cute kittens and pink, flowery laces hanging rather girlishly off the strawberry colored walls, with Umbridge herself perching awkwardly on her old-fashioned yet ugly chair. A person would rather stare at one of Mary Shaw's disgusting, haunted dolls than take a tour around the toad-face Inquisitor's private office.

Jiraiya did his best to get that horrible image out of his head as he took his first step carefully into Dumbledore's office, and gasped.

The headmaster's office was certainly way more magnificent than Jiraiya would have expected. It was simply a huge room with hundreds of walnut-colored bookshelves lining neatly along the walls, and if there were any space not covered by bookshelves, then it would most likely be occupied with paintings and portraits of all sort of sizes. Jiraiya moved his head this way and that, staring at strange yet interesting objects located almost everywhere within the office. He spotted the sorting hat perched silently on top of a shelf, and blinked surprisingly when a magnificent bird about a few paces in front of him sang out a soft note, perhaps a welcoming one.

He was eagerly examining a globe that shows everything on the face of the Earth including little moving ships, whales, and even modern airplanes when a rather curios voice behind him said, "So your point is that I should organize an expedition of all my prized possessions for my students because it would be rather entertaining?"

Jiraiya jumped and turned around, only to find the old headmaster sitting cheerfully behind his big desk. The Shinobi felt incredibly ashamed. "S-Sorry Dumbledore-sama…I mean, Professor Dumbledore." He apologized quickly.

Dumbledore smiled behind his long beard, "That's quite alright," he said. Jiraiya watched as his hand slide onto one of the handles of the many drawers and pulled it open. Inside were nicely wrapped candies in almost every color. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow as Dumbledore, humming a happy tune to himself, picked one up, unwrapped the wrapper and popped the sweet candy into his mouth.

"Now," the headmaster turned his chair back again to face Jiraiya as he chewed on his candy, "Do you mind telling me what brings you here? But of course Professor Snape told me already."

Jiraiya blinked and stared at the headmaster blankly. "Well," he started, "Professor Snape sent me here, because he saw me fighting a bunch of…er…Death Eaters, if that what you guys call them." Dumbledore nodded while the portraits on the walls gasped in horror, and Phineas snickered, "Gotten off the wrong side of the bed today, boy? Where did you manage to find a whole bunch of them in Hogwarts grounds?"

Jiraiya glared, "They found _me_! I didn't go and_ look_ for them! They cornered me and asked me where my teammate was. I sensed something bad was going on so I fought them…"

"Sensed something was wrong and decided to use violence? Kids these days…" Phineas _tsked tsked _and Jiraiya snorted. "It's called self protection, whoever-you-are," he muttered.

Phineas was about to argue back when Dumbledore silenced him, "we would all appreciate it if we let our student continue his story," he smiled.

The door swung open and hit the wall with a _bang_. Jiraiya jerked his head around, Dumbledore blinked, and the portraits fell silent. Orochimaru came, his golden eyes rigid, into the office.

"_Snape told me they want me_," Orochimaru took no notice of anything except for Jiraiya, who was standing open mouthed, unable to speak, "_Why did they want me, Jiraiya? They must've told you._" He didn't even bother to speak English.

Jiraiya stared at him, yet his teammate's expression was unreadable. "Um, well, I'm just about to tell Professor Dumbledore…" he started, but Dumbledore cut him off, "I've told Severus to go and tell you to see me, and he sure was fast," he said as he carefully adjusted his half-moon spectacles, "Jiraiya was innocently involved in a Death Eater fight because of you, my dear Orochimaru."

Orochimaru frowned and stared at the headmaster. "So, they want me because…?"

"Perhaps your great ninja skills, or perhaps because of your personality, or even perhaps because of your dream…" Dumbledore sighed heavily, who suddenly looked twenty years older, "We don't entirely know what is his plan behind all this, yet it would be quite logical to say that whatever it is, it certainly won't be good." Dumbledore looked up at Orochimaru and smiled. When Orochimaru didn't say anything, Dumbledore continued with a sad tone in his voice, "I felt terribly sorry for all three of you," he sighed again as he put a hand on Jiraiya's shoulders, "Having to endure such complicated matters with the Dark side with almost no knowledge of them whatsoever, and being foreign guests at our school, I daresay that I would take full responsibility of your health and safety until, of course, all of you are safely returned to your own homeland."

"No," said Orochimaru, shaking his head, and causing Jiraiya to frown, "I appreciate your kindness but, I can take care of myself. Plus, if Voldemort or those Death Eaters come finding me again, then I'll make sure every one of their necks are broken."

"Oh, but no killing would be permitted," Dumbledore pointed out. He glanced at Jiraiya, "especially within Hogwart's grounds. A student of mine died some time ago and I was already too overwhelmed with sadness to accept that it was Voldemort's –or rather, Tom Riddle's— work."

"Still," Orochimaru shrugged, "We're ninjas. And we are trained to protect people, not the other way around. I could inform you if anything suspicious is going on, though, if you insist." Jiraiya nodded in agreement, and Dumbledore smiled. "Very well then," he said, "If there isn't anything else you two would like to say, then you may leave now. Yet, we would still keep an eye on you. It's our teacher's responsibility after all."

The headmaster gave them a grin and he gestured at the door. Orochimaru rolled his eyes as he and his teammate exited the room. "Oh and by the way," Dumbledore called, and the two Sannins looked back, "Professor Snape reminded me to tell you that your detention would be rearranged to next week, usual time." He then waved at them, "off you go now!"

Jiraiya blinked, and sighed. Once Jiraiya, Snape, and Lupin were safely back in Hogwarts, Snape had shoved him against the wall, almost yelling at him for wandering off carelessly like a two year old child and not taking in the rules in seriously. Remus meanwhile had tried to stop Severus from yelling at Jiraiya by reminding him that the Wolfsbane potion would have to be done by tomorrow, yet only to get yelled at, too, in return.

"You should get used to his temper," Remus shrugged after Severus stormed out of the room, shutting the door loudly behind him, "he never liked me anyways." Jiraiya had stared at him blankly, thinking that it would be rather unusual to have a person suddenly pop up and drag him all the way back to safety. "Thanks anyways," the ninja then straightened up, forcing a smile.

"It's nothing," the werewolf had cheerfully replied, using his knee to support his briefcase as his hand searched through it, "If it was not for the explosion though, I wouldn't have come…" He had stood up, heading for the door.

"By the way," Remus turned around, facing Jiraiya again, "I haven't seen you before, and you don't look European to me either."

"Oh, well…I'm Japanese, and me and my friends are just…er…visiting Hogwarts," Jiraiya replied, not really wanting to say how did they come here all over again. "Is that so?" Remus had found this rather interesting, "Japanese visitors, huh? That's new to me. But then, next time…" he gave Jiraiya a 'you-know-what-I'm-talking-about' look, "Go somewhere else other than the forest, okay?"

Remus had smiled again and left. Jiraiya stood there for a moment. "He didn't ask me why I was fighting the Death Eaters even though he was dying to know. Weird." Jiraiya had muttered to himself as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

------------------- ----------------- ---------------------- ------------------------- -----------------

"Hurry up, Severus. Not much time is left…" Remus, who was lying down on a bench, tiredly muttered, even though the Potions Master was probably several hundred yards apart from him. The full moon is approaching ever so fast, and Remus had started to feel his wolfish characteristics bubbling madly inside him.

His bench was located in front of the frozen lake, and everything around him was covered entirely in snow. He sat up, causing a shiver down his body because his coat wasn't thick enough. The werewolf walked around the bench slowly, trying to keep warm. He had a huge desire to go back to the castle and wait, seeing that it was way warmer in there, yet he knew he couldn't; Tonks and MadEye would be picking him up anytime now. The school was at least a hundred yards from where he was standing now so it would be really exhausting to come all the way down again.

Remus sat down again, and killed the time by looking at the beautiful scenery. The great frozen lake where the giant squid lived, Hagrid's little hut by the forest, Hogwarts itself…

"Hey."

A voice called, sounding rather irritated. Remus snapped out of his thoughts as he turned his around. Severus Snape was walking towards him, his black cape billowing behind him. He was holding a small package in his hand. Remus was about to greet him when the sound of an engine roared and he turned his head around again, startled.

An old car soared above Remus's head and landed on the snowy ground. The window attached to the car door slid down and out popped Tonk's head. "Remus!" she called ever so cheerfully as she opened the car door for Remus, "The car's old but it would still hold three people."

"Hi," Remus smiled back as Severus approached, shoving the package into the werewolf's hands. "Having so little time to brew this, the potion's weak, but it'll still hold," Severus said, the coldness in his voice never left, "now get the hell out of here."

Hearing his last words, Remus grinned as though he was quite used to it, "Thanks for brewing the potion so fast," he turned around and started walking towards the car while holding up a hand, signaling his thanks. Severus snorted and headed back towards the castle.

MadEye waited until Remus was completely in the car and started the engine. The car coughed to life. "I heard from Sirius that Potter and his friends were spending their Christmas in Headquarters, mind paying them a visit, Remus?" MadEye shouted through the noisy engine as they soared through the air once more. "That would be good," Remus replied, "We could stay there for a while, and then fulfill Dumbledore's next orders."

The sky was getting darker and the temperature was dropping lower and lower. The old car did not seem to have a heater so an hour later Remus had found himself shivering uncontrollably. Tonks, who was sitting beside him, quickly took a blanket and draped it around him. "So…how was your one day visit to Hogwarts?" Tonks asked, desperate to bring up a conversation.

"Things sure changed a lot," Remus nodded, "I've even ran into a bunch of Death Eaters!"

"You WHAT?" MadEye and Tonks cried out, jerking their heads around to face Remus. The car shifted dangerously and MadEye quickly turned his head back, cursing slightly. "Ruddy Death Eaters aren't able to enter Hogwarts, Remus," he grunted disapprovingly as he turned the driving wheel and car flew slightly right.

"I saw it with my own eyes," Remus replied, "I didn't really believe it too, but I saw it. In the forest. Severus was there too, and so was one of the foreign students visiting Hogwarts." Tonks stared at him, "Snape was there…?" MadEye took a glance at Remus but didn't say anything. "…and who's 'one of the foreign students'?"

Remus shook his head, "I know nothing of him, he only told me that he is Japanese and that he, along with his friends, are paying Hogwarts a visit. Yet the interesting part was that that student…he was actually fighting the Death Eaters! He did not look like a magic user to me, though his fighting methods were quite unique…"

He sighed, "There are so many things I wanted to ask Severus about that kid…but for some reason, Severus is in a rather bad mood right now…so the questions would have to wait." Remus shrugged, grinning as though it wasn't a big deal at all.


	19. an impossible dream?

Hmm…let's see. At least two votes for no OC, and none for OC. Bah, no OC then. (Scratches chin) The reason for the lack of votes would probably be: either the said person is too lazy to vote, or that he or she didn't even bother to read the A/N at all (narrows eyes)…yes, that happened quite a lot to other stories in as well…T-T

And since many people complained that my last chapter is like crap, (everyone knows I'm just over-describing here, ha-ha) I've decided to make this chapter longer than usual, and hopefully, more exciting than the last chapter, so hope you guys would be satisfied :)

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Chapter 20: An impossible dream?

I would _so_ be late for class. And McGonagall would be furious.

Orochimaru thought desperately as he sped through the hallways as fast as he could. Everyone had went to class and the corridors were completely deserted, making them look and sound more eerier now that the only sound Orochimaru could hear was the loud echo of his footsteps on the cold stone floor.

He was running at top speed now, yet McGonagall's classroom seemed to be stretching farther and farther away. Orochimaru ran faster. The classroom door stretched farther, and soon it was so far away that it would be a miracle if Orochimaru could even see it at all.

_Why won't it let me reach it? What's going on?_

"_Oh, it's you again! Are you back from training with Sarutobi_?"

Orochimaru intake a sharp breath and jerked his head around, who then gasped in astonishment. The long corridor had disappeared. Instead it was clearly replaced by the peaceful streets of Konoha, and in the middle of the road stood one of the members of the Uchiha clan, waving cheerfully at Orochimaru.

"Uchiha…Suzume…" Orochimaru stared blankly at the man now standing in front of him. The two of them had met before in front of the gates of the Shinobi academy. Orochimaru had spotted Suzume teaching his son about the Sharingan eye and its unique techniques, and being a somewhat Uchiha-admirer himself, Orochimaru couldn't resist the urge to eavesdrop on them. He had casually edged closer as to receive a clearer hearing but unfortunately for him, Suzume had spotted his suspicious actions.

"So, you're interested in the Sharingan eye too, I assume?" Despite the incredibly deep voice of his, Suzume seemed to be a friendly person.

Perhaps that was how they had met, yet Orochimaru now thought that something had changed about this Uchiha. He looked incredibly old and distant, and when he speaks, that deep voice of his echoed steadily through the streets. "_You must be tired_," Suzume echoed, "_care for a cup of tea_?"

Orochimaru blinked, and shook his head. There was a creepy feeling about all this…everything was just too unreal… "_It's all right then_," Suzume gave him a very distant smile and started walking towards him, "_You still seem to be interested at our clan, am I right?_"

Orochimaru felt uneasy as the Uchiha walked soundlessly towards him with his hand slightly outstretched as though to reach out to something. "I…" Orochimaru started and had suddenly decided to run; all these stuff was just too creepy…

He turned and started to run the other way, his feet thudding loudly on the pavement below. Orochimaru turned his head around to look and discovered that Suzume was still following him soundlessly like a ghost.

The Sannin cursed and turned his head back— just in time to see Suzume standing right in front of him.

"What the—?" Orochimaru gasped and nearly lost his balance. Suzume caught hold of his arm and pulled his back up, happily saying, "_I've got some news for you, Orochimaru-kun!_"

His voice was way too distant to trust, yet the man standing right in front of Orochimaru extended a hand and ruffled the poor Sannin's hair, adding ever more distantly, "_I can give the Sharingan eyes to you if you want!_"

"…huh?" Orochimaru was neither happy nor suspicious; he was clearly confused.

"_Hey! Orochimaru! So there you are!_" Another distant voice echoed out behind him. And, extremely confused, Orochimaru turned his head around and saw his own sensei coming out from behind a classroom door. Why would there be a door? Because the whole Konoha scenery had turned back into the halls of Hogwarts.

_All of this doesn't make sense…it's just not…it can't…_

"What _is_ all this nonsense?" Orochimaru demanded furiously at his sensei. Sarutobi did nothing but wave at him and, feeling extremely furious, he dashed towards his sensei, hoping for a better answer to his question. Yet when they were a few paces apart, Sarutobi held up a hand, signaling him to stop. "_I'm quite happy to tell you that Suzume-san over there is quite right,_" Sarutobi's voice was also very soft and far away as he nodded his head towards Suzume's direction. Though when Orochimaru looked back, nobody was there. Suzume was gone. _Then who was Sarutobi nodding at?_

"…What?"

Sarutobi smiled down at him. "_It's quite easy to get it really…_" Orochimaru could see that Sarutobi was still holding onto the doorknob even though the door was closed. The older Shinobi held a firm grip on the doorknob, turned and pushed the door open with ease.

What lied on the other side of the door wasn't a classroom, in fact, it wasn't even a room at all. Orochimaru found himself looking at an up-slanted hill with a tower covered completely in shadows, perching menacingly right on top of that hill. Despite the wilderness all around Sarutobi and him, there wasn't a single tree or animal beside the huge tower.

"Where is this…?" Orochimaru stared at the scenery in front of him. Everything looked so dark and evil. "_Why, that's where he lives, of course,_" Sarutobi replied as though living in such a place wasn't a big deal at all, "_At least, for now he's living here…_"

Then he reached out and waved his hand once in front of Orochimaru's eyes. The Sannin blinked. _What did he just do?_

"Why did you…?" Orochimaru turned to question Sarutobi but was rather taken aback at what he saw: the man standing beside him had become a swirl of chakra flowing around. Orochimaru immediately recognized the chakra points and the paths in which they were flowing in, which means…he was— sort of— looking into Sarutobi's body._ Is it that I…?_

"_It feels great to be able to use the Sharingan, am I right?_" Sarutobi said in his distant voice, "_but then you see, Orochimaru, there is always something way better than the Sharingan or the Bayakugan, in fact, there're just too many…_" With that, Sarutobi stretched out his hand again and with one swift movement, waved his hand in front of Orochimaru's eyes; his vision immediately resumed back to normal.

"Wha—? Hey!" Orochimaru blinked at the sudden change of his vision and felt a jolt of disappointment. Having the opportunity to inherit the Sharingan eye was certainly a dream come true, so having it suddenly swept away from him was of course, rather unbearable.

"_Go find him then, if you want it so badly,_" Sarutobi jerked his head towards the tower and gave Orochimaru a distant grin.

------------------------ ----------------------- ------------------------------------ ------------------

"Oi!—"

"Hurry and—"

"Wake up!"

If asked what would be the most annoying sound around, Orochimaru would probably reply "Fred and George's voice".

The Sannin groaned and sat up. The twins were towering over him and shaking his shoulders, "How long have you been—" started Fred,

"Asleep out here, anyways?" Finished George.

Orochimaru frowned and looked around him; he had fallen asleep on the bench beside the lake, and, just to make things worse, it was raining rather heavily so he discovered that he was actually soaked from head to toe.

"Saw you lying on the bench—"

"So we came running."

The twins were both holding an umbrella.

"Who told you to worry about me? I won't die because of a few drops of rain," Orochimaru muttered as he got up from the bench and headed towards the school with the twins following close behind. He closed his eyes and sighed. The dream he just had was certainly a strange one…

"By the way—" Fred called to him through the rain,

"Your friend Tsunade had decided—"

"To spend a night at Grimmauld Place—"

"With Harry and the others."

Orochimaru grunted. So tonight he would have to be all alone again, seeing that Jiraiya was ordered to spend an awful lot of time in detention. "Tsunade had promised to heal up your dad today…" he started without turning to look at the twins.

"That's right," Announced Fred cheerfully,

"She came again today—" said George,

"Just to finish off the healing—"

"And so we assume—"

"That dad is now completely healed." Fred concluded. Orochimaru just nodded. Like he would even bother to care if their dad was healed or not, when way more important things were haunting his own dreams right now…

---------- ---------------- ------------------ ---------------- ---------------- -------------- ---------

"Okay, now hold it like _this_, yeah, with your index and middle finger touching the side…" Tsunade bent down and adjusted Ron's fingers on the kunai. The others leaned in and watched closely.

"There." Tsunade straightened up and nodded at Ron ever so seriously, "Proper grip of the handle is really important, and if the grip is wrong, the throw would be weak. In the Shinobi academy we were required to snatch the kunai from our weapons pocket and throw it towards the target in within a second, or else we wouldn't be able to pass."

Tsunade finished her lecture and Harry and the others "oohed" in acknowledgement. "So, uh…" Ron glanced at his kunai nervously, "How do you throw this thing?"

"It's all on the wrist," replied Tsunade as she got another kunai out of her pocket, "but for beginners, just try using the lower half of your arm." She then demonstrated by throwing the kunai at the wall. It stuck firmly onto it.

Ginny and Hermione cheered and Harry said, "Give it a try, Ron." Ron gulped and raised his kunai, aiming it at the wall. He then swung his hand forcefully and the kunai flew out, yet only hitting the wall with a clang without digging into it.

"Nice try for a beginner," Tsunade smiled as she went to retrieve the two kunai. "Nah, I bet Harry can do better," Ginny teased and Ron rolled his eyes. Ginny turned towards Harry, "Come on, give it a try," she urged, and Harry found that he couldn't say no to her.

He took the kunai from Tsunade and aimed it at the closed door, thinking that the blade might as well have a better effect on wood. "Go Harry!" cheered Hermione, and Harry took a deep breath, pulled back his arm, and flung the kunai towards the door as hard as he could; At this very precise moment, the door opened and in came Lupin with a tray of biscuits.

"OH MY GOD!" Shrieked everyone in the room as the sharp blade flew directly at the werewolf with such speed that it became blurred; Lupin widened his eyes in mingled surprise as the kunai stuck— just a few centimeters from his head— to the wooden frame of the door with a menacing 'THUD'.

The werewolf stood there, immobile and opened mouthed for a few seconds, his eyes slowly glancing at the gleaming kunai right beside him. And to the others horror, Lupin gave the kunai one last fearful look and collapsed to the floor, completely out cold.

The room was completely silent for a moment, with Harry and the others simply staring at the figure lying on the floor. "Um…" said Ginny, breaking up the silence.

"Blimey, He must be the most unlucky person in the world," breathed Ron, who walked towards the unconscious werewolf and leaned down to see if he was all right. "S-Sorry," said Harry weakly as he quickly went to the door and pulled out the kunai. Tsunade quickly pocketed it as Harry handed out the blade shakily to her.

"It's quite okay, Harry," Hermione forced a weak smile while she and Ginny carried Lupin to a nearby sofa, "And no offence but, who told him to come in at that very moment?" she sighed, and Ginny added, "But either way, we shouldn't be playing with weapons like that, it's rather dangerous."

"You right," Tsunade immediately placed all her weapons back into her pack, "I mean, he's quite lucky actually, if not than I bet he would have lost an eye or something…" She stopped and glanced at the werewolf now lying down on the sofa. "By the way," she said, "Who is he? I haven't seen him before, not even when I was downstairs helping Sirius set the table…"

"Oh, that's Remus Lupin. You know, the 'werewolf' I've been telling you before? He's really nice," explained Harry, and Tsunade nodded thoughtfully.

"Hey! Up there! Dinner's ready!" yelled Sirius's voice from downstairs, and Tonk's voice floated along with him, "It's 'fast food' or whatever Muggles call them! Lupin says we ought to try some! He says it's quite good!"

Hermione glanced at Harry and they chuckled, "What company do you reckon?" she asked. "McDonalds," Harry said firmly as he and Hermione sped down the stairs, leaving the confused Ron, Ginny, and Tsunade in the room.

Indeed McDonalds it was; Harry hadn't enjoyed fast food for such a long time that he might as well forget what it tasted like. Hermione chewed on the fries happily as she watched Ron and Ginny examine a cup of Coke. Ron took a sip and a few seconds later, he let out a burp, causing Tonks to laugh. "Boy, there's so much…_air_ in this stuff," he sort of complained, "It's like one of those candies in Zonko's…except that this drink makes your nose tingle as well." He did not enjoy the soft drink as much as Ginny did.

Meanwhile Tsunade had somehow found herself being obsessed with the chicken nuggets in front of her; she had never tasted anything like this. The chickens she ate back in Konoha were mostly steamed. "By the way," she glanced around the room with her mouth still full, "Where did Fred and George go again?"

"Oh, them," frowned Ginny, "They said they have some 'unfinished business' at Hogwarts, so they went back early."

"Speaking of where," growled MadEye as his eyes— normal and magical— swept around the room suspiciously and landing on Harry and the others, "Where's Lupin?"

The teenagers glanced at each other and gulped; they had forgotten that Lupin was still unconscious upstairs. "Oh him, uh…" said Harry, but was interrupted by footsteps coming down the stairs.

"You guys have started without me?" came Lupin's slightly irritated voice as he came down the stairs; his expression was still a bit dazed. "Oh, hey Lupin!" chirped Hermione, forcing on an innocent smile. Tsunade quickly scooted in her chair a bit more, so as to hide her weapons pack strapped to her leg.

"What happened to you? You look so, er, confused," Sirius handed him a wrapped cheese burger as he studied him up and down. Lupin shrugged and rubbed his eyes tiredly, "Can't really remember what happened…sort of fell asleep and had a weird dream."

Harry and the others sighed with relief, and Tsunade fought back the urge to giggle.

---------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ------------------ ------------------

Being the most evil person in the wizarding world, Voldemort liked dark places; it suited his personality well enough.

The Dark Lord sat comfortably on his favorite, dark chair inside his evil, dark headquarters of some sort. He crossed his legs lazily as he glanced down on two men standing rather awkwardly yet fearlessly below him. The two men's appearance were way different than the Death Eaters standing all around them; they did not wear robes and did not hold wands; a few stripes of metal armor covered their body here and there, making them look well protected, and although one of them wore a mask, it was quite different from the masks the Death Eaters wore. The mask was shaped like a cat with a dot and two red stripes running down from below its eye holes.

"So," Voldemort said, his voice echoing through the walls, "You two are the messengers, I assume?" The two men gave a short, rigid bow, "Indeed we are," they said, "We've discussed it among our people and Amekage-sama have accepted your offer."

"Good," Voldemort smiled to himself; thanks to those three ninjas at Hogwarts right now, who had gave him a brand new idea…

"It's a deal then," he said silkily as his mouth spread into an evil smile, "Tell your _Amekage-sama_ to send forth, for now, twenty to thirty men. They would be in my command by then._ And_," he raised his head up a bit, "If the plan is successful, then we would be happy to help you accomplish_ your_ mission in return."

The two Shinobi didn't like Voldemort's tone of addressing their Amekage at all, but had fought back the urge to scowl anyways. "We would be most delighted," one of them said in a cold tone. The other questioned, "Then what are you planning to do with our men?"

Voldemort laughed, "You ninjas all have amazing skills, some skills even more powerful than magic." He glanced at the Shinobi, "Don't worry, the ninjas your Amekage chose would be of great help. I was planning on sending them to retrieve, and_ kill_, certain people for me. That's all."

With their expressions unreadable, the two Shinobi bowed, causing the metal bandanna on their arms to glisten by the moonlight, and the carving on the metal to shine brightly, before the two of them disappeared completely in a puff of smoke.

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Here's a goal I would like to accomplish: I'm hoping for 300 reviews by the 30th chapter. Can you lovely reviewers do that? Please? –Gave out puppy-dog eyes- :3

…And of course, reviewing ten times in a row won't help.


	20. 茶

**Ha-ha a sort of…er, 'OK' fast update right? XDDD Yeah, didn't have too much home work to do so I have a lot of free time. And, besides writing chapter 21, I have also made— out of boredom— a doujinshi page based on the very next chapter! It's only one page though, because you know, drawing doujinshi wastes a lot of time. And for some reason, I wanted to share it with you guys (though I've chosen a rather boring scene to draw on, nothing really happened lol)…but then seeing that links won't work here…and since I'm too frustrated to break the whole link up like last time…tell you what, review (without using 'anon') and I'll send it to you through the reply link, okay:)**

P.S (If you don't want even a little bit of spoilers, though, just tell me and I won't send it to you.) :)

P.S again (Some of you might know that I've made a typo last chapter— in the second A/N, I've typed in '300' reviews instead of '200'. Yes yes, to me, 200 reviews by the 30th chapter is really enough, and, you know, it'll be quite impossible to get 300 reviews 10 chapters after! T-T so yeah, I wouldn't want to sound like I'm greedy or anything…)

Chapter 21:茶 (tea)

It was twelve o'clock at night and nothing particularly stirred; perhaps affected by the pleasant sound of the heavy rain against icy cold windows, every single soul in Number twelve Grimmauld Place were all soundlessly asleep. The night sky was covered in thick wet clouds, causing the atmosphere around it to look duller than ever. Harry though, did not care as much; the heavy mood outside could not possibly affect his peaceful sleep.

Hedwig wasn't at all lucky; the titter-tattering of the icy rain had kept her awake all night and now she was about to drop back into a restless sleep when soft footsteps creaking on wooden floorboards brutally jerked her awake again. She clucked her beak in annoyance as Tsunade silently apologized with a tiny salute.

"Sorry," she whispered, keeping her voice as quiet as possible as to not wake the others. Hedwig watched her climb down the stairs and disappeared through the darkness. The snowy owl then turned her head around, glancing out the window, and spotted a school of lonely bats sputtering above the gloomy sky.

Maybe a little midnight snack would treat her to sleep.

And so off she went for a hunt, even though it was still raining rather heavily, and taking no notice the Sannin anymore.

Tsunade slowly made her way down the stairs and through the hallway full of shrunken heads. The lifeless skulls glared down at her; Tsunade made a disgusted face, thinking that the previous owner of this house had surely developed a very weird hobby indeed. She turned a corner and silently pushed open the door to the kitchen, and spotted Sirius snoring on the sofa, with his whole body impolitely propped against the soft leather and cushions.

Tsunade didn't even bother to wonder why a person would prefer to sleep on a sofa than on a bed, because when her eyes surveyed around the kitchen, she had immediately found the things she was looking for: boiling water and tea leaves.

Yes, she was thirsty for tea.

"Thank goodness there're tea leaves even in this kind of place," Tsunade whispered as she smiled to herself. She took a cup from the dusty cupboard, blew on it a bit, and picked up the still-smoking kettle from the counter. Memories had somehow found their way into Tsunade's mind as she started to stir the boiling water with a spoon like she always did back in her homeland.

"_Sensei, why do you have to stir the water before adding in the tea leaves?" Tsunade curiously asked. Sarutobi chuckled, "Oh it's…just a habit of mine. I thought that perhaps stirring the water first would dissolve the taste of the leaves more effectively." When Tsunade rolled her eyes, Sarutobi laughed, "Humans sometimes do believe in some crazy things!"_

After Tsunade had finished stirring the boiling water, she carefully tilted the cup and poured the water into the ceramic, but without adding in the leaves. The pure steam polluted the air all around her.

"_See the mist over there?" The Hokage asked his granddaughter as he pointed to the mist surrounding the magnificent waterfall in front of them. "Mm," replied Tsunade as she and the Hokage sipped on their green tea. "It's a pity today's weather isn't as good," sighed the Hokage, "or else we would be able to see the rainbow inside the mist caused by the sun." Tsunade glanced at her grandfather in wonder, "You mean, if there's no sun, there wouldn't be any rainbows?" she was young, at that time._

_The Hokage smiled down at her with his naturally-narrowed eyes, "Yes…let's just say that the rainbow is made up of some of the sun's light rays…"he ruffled her hair, "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to learn about the sun in the future." He then turned his gaze back to the waterfall, "Now, let's enjoy this moment together…there's nothing more refreshing then drinking warm tea while looking at Konoha's magnificent scenery."_

Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment…

With the cup still steaming with hot water, Tsunade sprinkled in the tea leaves; most of the leaves landed on the bottom of the cup, while a few thin pieces stayed afloat, swaying slightly along with the tea as the Sannin brought her midnight drink over to the table, facing the rain-covered window, and sat down.

The tea was remarkably soothing. Well, it contained many of Tsunade's precious memories, didn't it? The memories in her mind swam around and around, as though comforting her, then suddenly, as quickly as they'd come, the memories vanished— and Tsunade found herself feeling extremely homesick.

"_How long will we be stuck here?_" Tsunade wondered aloud, and her voice shook as though she was close to tears. Being a girl, Tsunade was always the most sensitive one among Sarutobi's group. "_That crystal ball McGonagall mentioned before…I've only told Orochimaru half the things McGonagall told me…I haven't told him that…_" Tsunade closed her eyes, a tiny bit of guiltiness lingered inside her as she raised her cup to her lips, and had decided not to think about it anymore.

She drank quietly, and the only sounds she could hear were the plitter-plattering of the rain and Sirius's calm breathing.

But wait. Listen. There was another sound. The sound of footsteps. Walking lightly yet tiredly on the grass. Tsunade calmly placed her tea onto the table and looked outside; even though the window was blurred with water, she could still see a shape— a person— walking slowly _away_ from the house.

With curiosity bubbling inside her, Tsunade made her way to the main door of Grimmauld Place, opened it, and stepped out of the house without even bothering to wear a raincoat first.

---------------- ---------------------- ----------------------- ---------------------- -----------------

"_Yo! Takahashi!_"

"_Mm_?" The Shinobi turned his head slightly without moving his body much, so as to avoid the rustle of the tree branches in which he was now crouching on. Another Shinobi appeared right beside him, also crouching low.

"_You must be hungry,_" he said as his hand dug into his small pack, searching. He then pulled out a paper bag, opened it, and got out a hastily wrapped sandwich. "_I'm not that hungry,_" the Shinobi whose name was Takahashi replied stiffly, but took the food from his companion anyways. "_Oh yes you are,_" the other Shinobi said, while digging out another sandwich from the bag for himself, "_all of us have been stuck here all day, watching a stupid space between two houses. It would be a miracle if the others over there aren't numb in the legs by now._"

Takahashi glanced to his left; sure enough, there were two more comrades crouching on trees not far away, silently studying the ground below them. He turned his head back towards the houses, and sighed frustratingly, "_To tell the truth, sometimes I really hate it when it comes to Amekage-sama making decisions…_"

"_And your point is…?_"

"_What I mean is that…well, he ordered us to come here through this…this…oh I don't know! Some kind of 'spiritual incantation portals',_" Takahashi grunted out the last three words; he looked awfully helpless, "_And then he told us to spy on a space between two houses to see if anyone ever comes out of it? What was he thinking!_" he had no trouble showing his depression.

"_You do have a point there,_" his companion replied flatly, "_But keep in mind that the person we're temporarily serving is that _Voludamortu_ guy, the one we've just met a few days ago."_ Then he added,_ "So blame it on him."_

"_Don't let his men hear you, Takeyari-kun,_" Takahashi teased. Takeyari snorted, "_They won't be able to kill me. What good are these wizards anyway? They're totally useless without their wands._" Takahashi shrugged, and both of them sat in silence once again, with Takeyari still munching on his sandwich.

15 minutes had passed; Takeyari had already finished his sandwich, but there still were no movements from down below. "_This is getting hopeless,_" Takahashi growled as he fiddled with his ANBU mask while glancing down at the streets. Takeyari spotted the ANBU mask. "_How did your _other_ mission go, by the way?_" he asked his companion curiously, eyes still fixed on the mask. "_It went quite smoothly,_" Takahashi said, "_In fact, if it was not for me and this mission, we wouldn't even be crouching on this tree right now._"

"…_Let me guess,_" Takeyari started, his mind racing as he stared straight at Takahashi, "_It was YOU who have figured out a way to travel through dimensions!"_

"…_Indeed,_" Takahashi studied his companion's expression a bit before answering slowly, "_And I've even found out how did those_ three_ ended up in this magical world._" He smiled to himself, "_I've learnt a lot during my short stay in Konoha._"

"_And even better…_" Takeyari's eyes suddenly flashed with excitement as he stared down at the gap between house no.11 and no.13, "_…I think that Voludamortu guy's right after all."_

"_Someone _did _come out!_" Takahashi intake a sharp breath as his eyes widen with surprise. He then quickly turned and gave a hand signal to the others, and they returned the signal with a nod of their heads.

"_All of them understood,_" Takahashi informed Takeyari quickly, "_We'll first stalk that person to see if he or she is one of the two we are assigned to kill, then—_" but he was cut off by a shake of Takeyari's head.

"_There's no need,"_ he said with a smile, and slowly pointed to a second figure emerging from the darkness, a little behind the first, "_Because, one of our targets is already here…_"

------------------ ------------------ ------------------- ----------------- ------------------ ----------

Remus Lupin felt something— or someone— not too far away behind him and he turned, rather surprised to see the Kunoichi standing a few paces behind, an apologizing smile swept across her face.

_His six senses are better than I thought, _Tsunade inwardly cursed.

"Um…hello— Tsunade right?" Remus gave a little wave of his hand, looking around cautiously before asking, "May I ask…er…why are you following me?" Tsunade blushed, and quickly bowed apologizingly, "I-I'm really sorry, Remus Lupin sir! I saw you coming out of the house and head towards the woods…I was curious, so…"

Remus blinked, then laughed, "Oh, it's quite okay. I can't blame you for being curious, I mean, anyone would want to know what a person is doing in the middle of a raining night." Tsunade was startled by Lupin's abnormal reaction; she had somehow expected him to yell at her.

"Sorry again, but…" she said as she fiddled with her shirt, "May I ask what _are_ you doing out here?"

The werewolf smiled. "I'm waiting for the transformation," he said, and glanced up at the sky; although still thick with gloomy clouds, the chilly rain was not as heavy as before, which means the rain would stop quite soon.

"Transform…?" Tsunade was confused for a second, but then when a memory of Harry telling her about Remus Lupin, she gasped in astonishment, "Oh! You're going to transform into a werewolf? Tonight?"

Remus Lupin stared at her for a second. For some reason, the girl standing in front of him didn't seem scared when it comes to werewolves. "Aren't you frightened?" he asked, yet there was a hint in admiration in his voice, "Aren't you afraid that I would transform anytime and attack you? Seeing that you're just a few paces away from me?"

Tsunade did not entirely know how to answer this. "Um…I've only seen pictures of werewolves in books…I've never met one," she said.

Lupin nodded his head in acknowledgment and turned, walking absent-mindedly around the grass field, with tall trees and bushes surrounding the opening. "But the good news is," Lupin turned his whole body around so suddenly that Tsunade jumped, "I've drank the Wolfsbane potion made by Severus, so instead of turning into a werewolf, I'll just transform into a normal wolf."

Tsunade worked this out, "So that means, you'll have to drink that potion whenever there's a full moon— in which the transformation will occur…"

"It must be really painful to endure such—" but Lupin just shook his head and waved casually, meaning that he didn't care. "I'm used to it for many years," he smiled, "and it doesn't even hurt at all! The transformation would only last for a really short time."

But deep inside, Tsunade knew that the transformation did cause pain— not physically, as Lupin had said, but mentally. Knowing for your whole life that you were somehow different than all the other people around you, and that sometimes, when you saw that they would do their best to edge away or refused to talk to you simply because of the 'monster' within your own body— that feeling of hopelessness could be unbearable even to an adult, not to mention the five-year-old Remus Lupin when he first got his permanent present from Greyback.

"Say," started Remus, and Tsunade immediately snapped back to reality. She saw that the werewolf's mouth was still curved into a smile. _Even through all these circumstances, he never looks at the worst side of things._

"You're name's rather uncommonly used," Lupin said with a tone of curiosity, "I'm just asking here, but are you— but any chance— one of the Japanese visitors at Hogwarts?"

Tsunade immediately knew that he was talking about her and her teammates. _How did he know about us? _She thought in wonder, _perhaps Harry or Sirius told him?_

"We weren't technically_ visitors_…" Tsunade paused for a bit, "we arrived at Hogwarts by mistake. In fact, it was a really _huge_ mistake."

Lupin as rather taken aback by her words, "Mistake? But then that white haired friend of yours who had been fighting those Death Eaters said—"

"He fought WHAT?" Tsunade almost shrieked; although she knew quite clearly what she just heard. _Why did that baka Jiraiya—!_

"Hey, hey! It was not that serious! Well, maybe it was, but then he had managed to take down seven out of ten Death Eaters before Sever—"

"TEN!" Tsunade was now outranged, "TEN DEATH EATERS? THAT _BOKE_ FOUGHT _TEN_ DEATH EATERS?! ON HIS OWN?"

"Well, yes…but—" Remus tried to explain as he held up his hands defensively incase Tsunade had cracked and decided to attack him, "But I saw him and his fighting skills were great— and—"

But Tsunade didn't seem to be listening, "_Teme_...he had encountered with such dangerous— and-and he DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME? He could have been killed!" and for a fleeting moment Remus thought that Tsunade seemed as though she wanted nothing but to zoom all the way back to Grimmauld Place and transport to Hogwarts to find her friend.

But she didn't. In fact, she looked up, "Where did Jiraiya and the Death Eaters fight?"

"Somewhere inside the Forbidden Forest— yes I know, weird huh?" for Tsunade had cast him a suspicious look, "Nobody can Apparate in and out of Hogwarts grounds, so having Death Eaters in there was quite a surprise to me—"

"_It won't be that surprising once you've learnt the concept._"

Lupin jumped and snatched out his wand, while Tsunade jerked her head around, yet just in time to feel something white hot shoot across her skin. She stumbled but had managed to maintain her balance when another kunai flew towards her, aiming straight at her head. Tsunade immediately arced herself backwards and, sending chakra to her palms, her hand reached out and slowed the kunai now flying directly above her head and caught it in a tight grip.

Tsunade straightened up and looked at the weapon in her hand, and the next moment she had turned horribly white. "…it's not…possible."

Indeed not possible it was: nobody around here knew how to throw a kunai except for her. And it couldn't be Orochimaru or Jiraiya; the last time Tsunade checked, they were way back there in Hogwarts. _That means…_

Beside her Lupin was looking frantically around, perhaps demanding an explanation as to what had just happened. "Tsunade! Your arm's bleeding! Are you alright?" Lupin was shouting at her but Tsunade wasn't listening; in fact, his voice seemed so far away. _Yes…that sentence…before the kunai came flying towards me…it was in Japanese…_

"…! _Incarcerous!_" This time, Lupin's shouting voice had finally woken the dumbfounded Kunoichi, who jerked her head up just in time to see a long rope shot out of Lupin's wand and wound itself around— Tsunade's eyes went wide— an ANBU wearing a bird mask.

The sudden appearance of her own kind and clearly knocked the breath out of her. Tsunade stared as the ANBU disappeared in a puff of smoke and the rope had ended up coiling around a piece of log, and Lupin gasped in surprise.

The ANBU appeared among the nearby trees and Tsunade had found herself staring at his every move, mouth wide and quite unable to speak. _She was right…there was another…another…_

"Lupin!" Tsunade turned towards him and bellowed, "Stay back, as far as you can!" The werewolf obeyed, allowing Tsunade to stand in front of her. Yet Remus didn't run away as Tsunade had told me to; he wouldn't just leave her alone like that.

Tsunade glanced up, and saw that the ANBU was high up in the air, arms crossed, with three shuriken in each hand. "_Sorry! I was sent here to assassinate you!_" The ANBU said with a mocking laugh. He sped down on Tsunade and skillfully threw out the shuriken at top speed. Tsunade yelled as they dug deep into her flesh, but then her whole form disappeared and was instantly turned into dead logs.

Remus Lupin stared, wide eyed, as the Kunoichi reappeared the next second on the grass. "_Not bad,_" the ANBU landed on the ground without a sound, "_Guess I underestimated you. What's your rank?_"

"…_Chuunin,_" Tsunade replied, panting slightly. But her mind wasn't on ninja ranks. "_How…How did you come here?_" she called desperately, hoping for an answer even though she knew the ANBU was actually her enemy, "_Please, tell me! You came from Konoha right?_"

The ANBU smirked behind his mask, "_I don't seem to look like a Rain ninja do I? No, I did not come from Konoha. And what's the point in telling you anyways when you're about to be killed?"_

Tsunade gritted her teeth, "_We'll see about that then. And if I win I'll force the answer out of you._" Then she charged and jumped into the air, where she skillfully preformed all sorts of crazy Jutsu within a blink of an eye; Lupin's vision was instantly blurred as he watched silently from below. 'Ninjas' was the word that formed into his mind as abruptly as his now unclear eyesight.

"Unbelievable…" he whispered with a faint hint of enthusiasm in his voice, "I was right after all…there _are _ninjas!" —Sounding as though Wizardry seemed more realistic to Muggles than ancient Japanese martial arts.

To tell the truth, the ANBU hired by Voldemort wasn't as professionally skilled as we thought he would be; although he had the rank of an ANBU, his level was only slightly above Tsunade. And being the Sannin and all, Tsunade was gradually topping her enemy as time passed.

The young ANBU knew it too, for he was now panting slightly and cursed when his Jutsu kept on missing Tsunade by several inches.

"Tatsumaki no Jutsu!" Tsunade landed on the ground and turned on the spot with her hand still sealed with a hand sign. A mixture of air and dust emitted around her, spinning around and around with such blinding speed that Remus had to grasp a tree in order to not get sucked in into the mini tornado now taking shape.

As the werewolf watched with shielded eyes, Tsunade appeared to be standing inside the whirling wind, in which was now, at least, five feet taller than her. Tsunade locked her eyes on the ANBU and flung her right hand from behind to the front, as though commanding a troop of solders during a war.

At that precise moment, the tornado swirling menacingly above her arced forwards and shot out like a bullet— except it was made out of howling air instead of solid metal— and crashed, with a mixture of loud cracking, banging, and swooshing sounds, onto the surprised ANBU without any mercy.

Remus had immediately concluded that the impact of that tornado was unbelievably huge: as the swirling wind made contact with the masked Shinobi, he was sent crashing backwards into a tree, in which had tore completely in half, along with the other vegetations growing all around him. The scene had somehow occurred to him that this compared with the other disaster two days ago inside the forest were nothing but similar.

And it was also because of all these Shinobi-involved fighting scenes that had undoubtedly raised the werewolf's respect for ninjas.

Tsunade, on the other hand, grimaced in disbelief as she watched the ANBU's limped body slid down onto the ground and melted into water the next instant; that means the ANBU was fast enough to switch himself with other elements around him before getting caught inside Tsunade's tornado.

As the ANBU raised back up to ground with his real form, Remus, still clutching nervously on a tree, felt something…unusual lurking among the bushes and trees not too far away, and his wolfish instincts were never wrong; it was an ominous sign.

Lupin looked around cautiously, feeling and thinking that, perhaps, the ANBU wouldn't be their only enemy tonight.

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You've all read the A/N right? Good, review and I'll send it to you for sure ;)

Btw if you've read the early/middle-ish chapters, I bet you might know who Takahashi is ;)


	21. underestimated

To all the people in which I've sent the link of my doujinshi page…

Assuming that the link didn't show up on the damned reply boxes, I've place the link right here, again, in a hard way…

http :// www. xanga. com/ seireitei tamashii04

**IMPORTANT:** **On the link above, between the word 'seireitei' and 'tamashii04', there's an UNDERSCORE. I didn't put it there because it won't show up T-T**

This is how it works: delete ALL the spaces you can see. It'll work. I think. (God I've never hated FF .net that much…T-T)

Chapter 22: Underestimated

Jiraiya sat at his desk, glaring at two empty bottles and pile of wriggling Flobberworms. Glancing at the slippery creatures with a look of pure disgust, Jiraiya bit his lip, "You're not serious, are you?" and looking up from the worms, he then added quickly, "Sir?"

Snape, who was unceremoniously interrupted from his paper work, glared up at Jiraiya as though he would like nothing but to throw him out the window, "20 points from Gryffindor for asking stupid questions. And yes, I'm dead serious, with no protective gloves. Go ahead and start or else it'll be another 10 points for wasting time."

Jiraiya's mouth twitched as he glared at the Potions master, but said nothing as his hand reached out and plucked out a worm from the huge pile, hastily dropping it into one of the bottles that read "Rotten Flobberworms". Even he too, had to admit that Snape's detention methods weren't any better than Umbridge's, though of course, at least you wouldn't have embarrassing scares stuck to the back of your hand for the rest of your life.

It was still raining hard outside and this surely didn't improve Jiraiya's mood at all; This was the second night of his detention in Snape's gloomy office, and it seemed as though his only available company were rows of glass jars in which contained all sorts of mysterious body parts and old, cobweb-full books that lined themselves across the vast selves.

Jiraiya sighed as he picked at more Flobberworms, thinking that perhaps the happiest person among his friends would be Tsunade, who was probably playing wizard chess and card games with Harry and his friends right now in number twelve, Grimmauld Place, while he, on the other hand, was forced to sort out rotten Flobberworms.

_As for Orochimaru…I wonder what's he doing?_ Jiraiya pictured his teammate sulking, as usual, inside the Slytherin Common room and glaring at every single passerby. This made his giggle a little, causing Snape to look up and narrow his eyes suspiciously at him.

Suddenly, a dry cough could be heard and both of them looked up, to see a man with dark beard and sharp eyes walking into an empty portrait. He smirked when he saw Jiraiya, who was about to place a worm into the bottle and was dangling it in midair.

"My my Severus," he said lazily as he learned against the portrait frame, "How many poor, little souls have you punctured—"

"_What do you want, Phineas,_" snarled Snape in a relatively dangerous voice as he glared up at the ex-Headmaster.

Phineas glared back, "How rude, since you're not the Headmaster, you should address me as _sir_, seeing that I _did_ run this school—"

"Just tell me what happened!"

"Dumbledore said he won't change his mind, you're going to teach the boy and that's that," Phineas said in a resentful tone with his eyes still glaring down at the Potions Master, feeling both angry and insulted by the lack of Snape's politeness.

"For the last time, I'm not giving bloody lessons to that brat!" a dark cloud had passed over Snape's head and Jiraiya thought that the cloud might as well produce some thunder and lightning, seeing that Snape too, looked rather frustrated and angry.

"Don't yell at me! I'm only playing my bloody messenger part!" Phineas snapped, but his expression changed suddenly and was replaced by what seemed to be an evil grin, "But then again, I should wish you good luck with your lessons, 'cause I don't reckon it will be pretty."

And with that, Phineas turned and left the portrait, smirking slightly to himself, leaving Snape to curse at his own desk.

"…Er," Jiraiya said after a long while, indicating that there was actually a third person in the room when the heated argument took place. And indeed, when Snap looked up he was slightly surprised to see that there was a student sitting awkwardly in front of him.

Snape stood up moodily and walked across the room. Without turning back, he said, "Your detention ends here, you may go." He then ignored Jiraiya's sigh of relief and continued to rummage through bottles of ingredients.

-------------- --------------------- --------------------- ------------------- ------------------- ------

Meanwhile, on the other side, things weren't as good as Jiraiya had expected. Before Tsunade and Remus knew it, several more shadows jumped down all around them, surrounding the two so that no escape route was available.

Tsunade looked frantically around at the masked ANBUs, her heart thudding madly and her mind racing; there were currently four ANBUs in sight…and they all came from _our_ dimension…that means they would go back after they are done killing me…they would go back…they know how to go back…but they won't tell me how…

Ever wondered what it felt like, when hope was dangling right in front of you, the moment you thought that you might as well give up, swaying helplessly…and you reached out pleadingly, with happiness and joyfulness and your fingers outstretched, but suddenly realized that you could never reach it, however close it was…and your resolve, immediately crumbled into pieces.

"I can't believe it…I'm not wrong…there are more of them!" Remus shouted as he took one step back. A few paces in front of him Tsunade didn't seem to respond, in fact, she knelt down on the grass, her hand holding the kunai trembling.

"Tsunade!" Lupin ran towards her looking both surprised and terrified, "Tsunade! Are you okay? Tsunade!"

The werewolf desperately waved his hand in front of Tsunade's face, but her expression remained blank. Remus couldn't think of an explanation as to why the girl was suddenly so out of character, but he picked up his wand and aimed it at the ANBUs now edging toward them.

Though Remus's wand hand was steady, the ANBU could still see fear in his golden eyes. He laughed and said with a Japanese accent, "There are four of us here against the two of you. It's no use, you won't win!"

And with that he lashed out, aiming one of his deadly weapons at Lupin's heart. Yet to his surprise, the werewolf dodged it.

"_How…?_"

The ANBU paused for a split second as though Stunned, leaving a huge gap for Remus to attack. Indeed Remus shouted 'Stupefy!' and before the ANBU knew it, he was hit by a jet of red light and was sent flying backwards into a bush. The other masked ninjas watched in shock as their comrade's limp body lay still on the ground like a piece of dead wood.

"That's one down, three to go," panted Lupin, clutching his wand tightly. Even he too, was rather surprised about the fact that he had managed to dodge the weapon even though it was soaring towards him at top speed. Then he realized that perhaps the reason for this was connected to his transformation.

Remus assumed this to be the cause. Indeed, his vision was more focused than before, yet the bad part was that the colors around him seemed to be fading; his sense of smell was stronger, and he could hear more clearly. The discouraging part though, probably would be fact that once he was turned into a wolf, he would never be able to hold a wand, let alone cast a spell…

He would have to end this fight as quick as possible.

"We underestimated you, you're not like the other useless wizards!" Takeyari sounded rather amused as he jumped down casually from a nearby tree and looked up; Lupin noticed that he was the only one not wearing a mask.

"Now, at least, I may have some fun killing you as well." Takeyari laughed as Remus gritted his teeth, looking around hopefully for any passersby, preferably members of the Order. But the grass field was deserted, and the only thing Remus could see besides the greenery was the extremely faint outline of Grimmauld Place; which meant it would be near to impossible to call for help.

Without warning, Takeyari disappeared in a puff of smoke. Remus immediately snapped back to his senses and jumped out of the way just in time as Takeyari appeared right behind him and released a deadly Jutsu— sending millions of gleaming needles to shoot out of his sleeve.

When Remus turned around, he noticed that Takeyari was grinning. It was not a pleasant grin. The ANBU's eyes gleamed with glee,

"You sure…you want to dodge that?"

Suddenly realizing what he meant, Remus's eyes went wide as he spun himself around and, sure enough, the needles were shooting toward Tsunade, whose back was turned and was looking as absent-minded as ever.

"TSUNADE! BEHIND YOU!" Remus bellowed fearfully as he scrambled to his feet, with his wand raised, "TSUNADE! I SAID GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

But Tsunade still didn't seem to have heard him, and the razor sharp needles were cutting through air without any mercy.

---------------------- --------------------------- -------------------------- ---------------------- ---

Hedwig soared through the gloomy night sky, looking down once in a while to check that the big black dog speeding below her was still there.

The two of them would have to hurry, or else they won't make it in time and Hedwig had feared if they arrived a little too late, Remus and the visitor she saw earlier might be in serious danger.

…Ah, there it was. The grass field in which the fight had occurred. Hedwig looked down at the black dog and gave a signaling hoot. The dog returned with a bark and sped on ever faster.

It could see the opening of the grass field now, and also saw little dots moving around somewhere in there…

The black dog eagerly ran on and stopped immediately as it reached the entrance made up of trees and bushes, and searched around. Suddenly he gave an eager and excited bark as he took in the shape of Remus.

-------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------- ----------

Remus turned his head around, whose face lit up almost at once.

"Sirius!" he called what seemed to be in a desperate and hopeful voice. The dog gave another bark and transformed back into the shape of Sirius as Hedwig soared downwards and landed on his shoulder.

"Remus, what happened? Hedwig sort of told me that when she went out to hunt for a bit, she saw you guys fighting a whole bunch of…of…where are they?" his expression changed from the look of concern into a look of complete confusion as he scanned the clearing. His eyes than spotted Tsunade on the grass, with a hand clasped onto her bleeding shoulder, and gasped, "Bloody hell…what happened to you?"

As Sirius knelt down beside Tsunade to examine her wounded shoulder, Remus looked around cautiously. "Look, Sirius…" he whispered, "You'd better go and contact the others, those ninjas are still here watching us…hurry up…"

"Wait," Sirius jerked his head up and looked at his friend, his eyes narrowed, "Did you just say…ninjas?_ They_ are the ones fighting you?"

And for the first time, Tsunade spoke in a trembling voice, "Please…just…hurry up and find help…" and without warning, she devoured herself into a wet, tearful sob.

Sirius stared at her in disbelief, and Remus looked helpless.

Unable to stand the awkwardness, Sirius dug his hand deep into his coat and took out a cell phone. Remembering there was also a single phone sitting on the table on the 2nd floor of Grimmauld Place, he quickly dialed the number and waited.

A few seconds passed and Sirius could hear the phone on the other end click, and silence filled both the phones when finally there was an awkward-sounding voice, "Uh…anyone knows what_ this _is?"

Recognizing Moody's voice at once, Sirius shouted through his cell phone, "Oi! MadEye! Don't hang up, it's me, Sirius!"

"Sirius?" MadEye growled into the receiver suspiciously, "What's this? What in the world are you doing in there?"

Harry, who was also woken by the phone call, sighed and took the receiver from him, "Sirius, I never know you knew how to use a phone!" On the other end of the phone Sirius grinned, "I learnt how to use one before, when I was still on the run…well I'm _still_ on the run right now but that's not my point…" he cast Remus a questioning look.

"Tell them that 'we need help immediately, one of us is injured…and don't ask questions!'" Remus added hastily as he looked around the clearing. _They're still hiding, studying our every move…we wouldn't want to escape back to Grimmauld Place right now or else they might as well figure out the place of our headquarters…_

"Harry, I need you to wake Tonks as well. Remus and Tsunade's with me but we're all in danger!" Sirius said into the phone, though he had the faintest idea of exactly how much trouble they were in right now.

"…Look, don't ask questions. Just tell Moody and Tonks to come to the clearing I've told you…no, you can't come! I don't want you to get involved…and don't wake your friends…"

Meanwhile up in a nearby tree, the ANBUs took in every word of Sirius's conversation. "_They're calling backups, eh?_" Takahashi snorted. He turned to face Takeyari, who seemed to be muttering curses and sulking. "_Dammit…I almost got her…why the hell did she HAVE to come back to her senses at that very moment?"_ The ANBU looked furious now.

Takahashi cast him a look that plainly said 'Shut up and stop being furious at yourself' and turned his head around to face the other still conscious ANBU, "_Yuurei…How's Gatsu?_"

Gatsu, the ANBU who was Stunned by Remus, had still remained unconscious on the female ANBU's lap. "_He didn't even stir,"_ she said as she tried to place some recovery pills into his mouth, "_Dammit…what kind of spell was that? It was a miracle Gatsu wasn't hit by a killing spell…_"

"_Now what have we learnt about underestimating magic?_" Takahashi cast Takeyari another look. Takeyari scowled, "_Whatever! Now that they have backups, killing that Chuunin would be extremely difficult…"_ Takahashi didn't say anything, yet judging by the look of his expression he did seem to agree with his teammate as well.

"_Oh look, somebody's coming…_" informed Yuurei as she leaned forward a bit, so as get a good look at the two figures coming in through the opening. A second later she frowned, "_Not much of a 'backup'…only two came…_"

"_Ha, idiots,_" Takeyari sneered, then his expression changed suddenly, as though something unpleasant had just hit him square in the face, "_So…they only brought two to their aid. It's either their stupidity or they're underestimating us!_"

Takahashi gave him a firm grip in the arm, "_Hey! Drop this 'underestimating' issue already! You really think they brought only two with them because if this stupid reason?_" he then added, "_Calm down, we'll try and get all of them at the right moment._"

When Takeyari intended to argue back, Yuurei hushed in alarm, "_Quiet! Listen, they're talking again._"

Takahashi peered through the branches and surveyed the scene from above; He could now see five people in sight, including their target they were assigned to kill. The new arrivals were a big man with a long overcoat and an eye patch attached to one of his eyes, and the other person a tall woman with pink, flamish hair. They were all talking, perhaps a discussion all held in whispers, so that however Takahashi had tried to crane his neck, he still couldn't hear what the wizards were talking about.

"_Hey…Takahashi…!_" Takeyari's voice sounded extremely cautious and, feeling something ominous approaching, Takahashi turned around and asked, "_What?_"

"_I think one of them saw us,_" his companion replied with a look of uneasiness on his face. Takahashi frowned and shook his head, "_Impossible, although I know that Chuunin girl and that sandy-haired man knew we are hiding among the trees, I doubt they knew our exact location. The trees are thick—_"

"_No, Takeyari's right. I saw the man with the eye patch looking straight at me just now,_" Yuurei cut him off sternly, "_I don't know how he did it but I knew he saw me. I suggest we go down now and finish this as quickly as possible…something tells me that those two aren't easy to deal with._" She nodded her head towards Tonks and MadEye Moody.

"_Fine with me!_" spat Takeyari as he prepared to move, "_Failing to kill off that Chuunin girl pissed me off so much, it's all those damn wizard's fault!_"

And before Takahashi could tell him not to take any unnecessary risks, the ANBU had already jumped down from the tree and landed heavily on the leaf-covered ground somewhere behind the party of wizards.

Everyone jerked their head around in alarm and Lupin gave a surprised yell, "It's one of them Sirius!" But Sirius had already sprung into action; by whipping out his wand, he immediately shot a hex and hit Takeyari firmly on the head. Yet he was just in time to see the ANBU exploding into smoke when several kunai were hurtled toward him from behind.

"What the hell?" Sirius jumped out of the way as the kunais soared passed him and stuck themselves firmly onto a tree.

"How did he do that? Why did he explode into smoke?" Tonks seemed quite stunned as well. "I think it's just a copy of him!" Remus shouted as he shielded his eyes from the smoke, "The real him is still somewhere around here!"

Takeyari laughed loudly as he remained in the air for a few seconds, glancing around at all of them. Then he spotted Tsunade in the middle, being as miserable as frightened as ever.

Takeyari smiled and dug out his kunai. "Goodbye little Chuunin girl," he whispered insanely and kicked the air hard, dropping down at top speed with his kunai aimed directly at his target, the grin never left his face.

When his kunai and Tsunade's head were within inches, when he thought in triumph that he had succeed in killing his assigned victim, something rather unpredictable happened: at the very last moment, MadEye turned so suddenly and pointed his wand straight at Takeyari, whose grin seemed to falter for moment as his eyes fell upon the ex-Auror.

A flash of bright green light, and the next moment nothing seemed to matter to Takeyari anymore, not even his mission to kill off Tsunade, because after that he was thrown backwards roughly onto the ground, lying still and, completely lifeless.

Tsunade slowly turned her head around to stare at the dead ANBU, while the other wizards, including the two ANBUs crouching on the trees, gaped soundlessly at the body.

Moody snorted and stored his wand back into his pocket, and grunted at the still speechless werewolf, "Now don't start telling me off what to do and what not to do, Remus. If it wasn't for my magical eye, that Ravenclaw girl would be dead by now."

Sirius gave out a soft whistle with his eyes still locked on the lifeless ANBU, "Yeah, definitely a nice one, Moody. Yet keep in mind that the Ministry's gonna hunt you down anytime now for using an Unforgivable."

"Humph, I'm not even finished killing them all yet," Moody glared up at the tree and yelled, "You two! Come down and quit hiding! Your friend's dead, surely you can see that?"

Tonks immediately threw him a warning look, yet Moody's facial expression didn't seem to care a bit.

Up in the tree, every particle in Takahashi's body inched with rage, "_That bastard…he killed him…and he taunted…_" Yuurei gripped his arm firmly, "_Takahashi, please calm down…nothing would be done by cursing—_"

"_Then I'm going down to beat his crap out!_" Takahashi barked and tried to struggle out of Yuurei's grip, yet the female ANBU wouldn't move a muscle. "_Takahashi!_" she snapped, and the young ANBU jerked his head around to face her, wide eyes still filled with fury.

"_Takeyari's the one who didn't listen to orders, that's what he got—_"

"_It was YOU who suggested to go down and kill all of them!_"

Yuurei closed her eyes for a second or two, and when she opened them again, they weren't that sharp and stern anymore.

"_I'm…terribly sorry,_" she said, unable to look at Takahashi, "_It's…my fault…but the truth won't change, Takahashi. We're out numbered right now, lets report back and bring reinforcements later, okay? Then we would be able to kill off all of them…_"

Takahashi didn't speak for a long time, he mainly glared at a piece of fallen leaf in front of his foot. Then slowly, he nodded. Yuurei merely sighed in relief and the both of them disappeared from the trees and out of sight.

---------------- ------------------- ---------------------- ------------------- ------------------------

"I'm really sorry…" Tsunade said, a few hours after the incident, "I should've protected Lupin sir instead of—"

"Don't talk such non-sense," Sirius waved an airy hand as he leaned comfortably against the sofa, "Why would Moony mind, right, Moony?" he nodded at the wolf sitting beside him. The wolf gave a firm bark.

Yet Tsunade still didn't seem to be comforted by Sirius's words. "No you're wrong," she sniffed, "Being a Shinobi and all, I'm supposed to protect someone, not letting someone to protect me…I'm…I'm just pathetic! I failed to move just because a few ANBUs popped up! I…I'm just—"

But she cut off by a pat on the head. She looked up, rather surprised. "Just don't worry about it, 'kay?" Sirius ruffled her hair, "Just don't worry about it."

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Yeah kind of different from the doujinshi page…sort of changed the plot at the very last moment…


	22. Riddle

Chapter 23: Riddle

The sun was already high up in the sky at ten o'clock, shining welcoming rays of light onto Hogwarts Grounds, making the snow glitter and eventually raising the spirits of the fellow students even though the pressure of holiday homework was still lurking depressingly among them.

Perhaps Orochimaru was the only one who seemed untroubled by his incredibly huge pile of homework, for he had unregretfully plagiarized the day before by threatening another fifth-year Slytherin with unnecessary rudeness and ordering him to hand out his homework or else he would surely experience a 'long, painful death'.

Orochimaru then spent his next two days copying homework, neither caring whether or not the boy he had threatened was a genius when it comes to school work, or was he simply just one of those 'dumb and stupid' Slytherins like Crabbe and Goyle.

He had thought over that a bit though, and finally with a nod of his head, concluded that if he really does ended up getting a 'T' on his History of Magic essay, he would simply hunt that fifth-year Slytherin down and beat the crap out of him.

With a little sigh of relief, Orochimaru put down his quill and glanced at his newly copied essay on "The Foundation of Saiyalbala St. Soswen"— whatever it was— and stretched lazily.

Just then, Orochimaru looked up and spotter the boy he had threatened two days ago; he was undoubtedly, with a look of uneasiness, trying his hardest to walk across the room without first approaching Orochimaru's table.

By the sight of his awkward state, Orochimaru smirked inwardly and stood up, gathering up the boy's essays as he did so. He approached the Slytherin, who looked terrified at his mere sight, and stuffed the papers unceremoniously into the boy's arms.

"Thanks for the essays, but you know the rules, tell on me and you'll get your tongue tied up into knots," said Orochimaru, who pointed at his own tongue— which was now at waist length— and paused a bit to enjoy the effect of the boy turning steadily green.

"Did I make myself clear?" Orochimaru asked. The boy gave a little shriek and fainted.

Taking that as a 'yes', Orochimaru dragged his body onto a nearby sofa and proceeded out of the common room.

Unfortunately for him though, he met Peeves on his way towards the Grounds, who was having the time of his life throwing all sorts of food he could find in the kitchen onto the ceiling above; once in a while the sticky sweets and deserts would give a sickening plop and smack down onto floor.

Orochimaru stopped at his tracks and frowned at the pile of disgusting food above and in front of him. "Don't you have better things to do than playing pranks?" Orochimaru glared up at Peeves, who was now popping a bubble gum into his mouth. Peeves crackled as he zoomed merrily around Orochimaru's head, "That's what I live for Snakey Snakey!" and threw carrot sticks at Orochimaru, who avoided it with a snarl.

"Stop calling me Snakey," he glared up at the floating little man as he dodged more of the food thrown by Peeves, who laughed, "It's a free country Snakey! I can call you whatever I want!" He then pulled a silly face and zoomed out of sight, laughing loudly as he went.

Orochimaru sniffed in disgust and continued down the hall, carefully stepping over the wasted food.

Seeing that he had already finished all of his homework, Orochimaru decided to spend his remaining days of his Christmas holiday training, and perhaps, invent some new Justus as well. He would have liked Jiraiya to come of course, yet considering that Jiraiya still had to attend his detention with Snape, there wouldn't be much free time left.

Trotting down the little path that lead towards the great lake, Orochimaru carefully looked around; before he had thought of training by the lake, but now it was clearly occupied with students sitting and chatting cheerfully on the shore. Some of them even dared for a swim in the defrosted water.

Not wanting to get any more attention from the students, Orochimaru turned and set off for his next possible destination: the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Surely no one would want to go there, when the lake looked a hundred times more cheerful than the gloomy, dead-looking forest?

He casually approached the tree-full area and, checking that no one was peering curiously over the trees, took a step back and started to train by himself.

"_Just as I thought,_" he growled frustratingly as he tried to do complicated hand-signs at top speed; his reflexes weren't as perfect as it used to be, considering the fact that he hadn't done much as take a little jump for the pass two months, and now Orochimaru could really tell the difference. This certainly hadn't cheered him up.

Fuming, Orochimaru abandoned the thought of ninja training and glanced around the clearing rather absent-mindedly, and something caught his attention.

There was something…unusual hidden behind the mass of trees and branches. Squinting, Orochimaru edged towards to the trees cautiously, trying his hardest to peer over the greenery.

His hand stretched out and shoved the leaves aside. There, right in front of Orochimaru, was the faint outline of what seemed to be a transmutation circle, otherwise camouflaged completely with the dirt ground, so that random passers-by wouldn't be able to notice it. The mysterious circle clearly had symbol after symbol decorated along its outer ring, completed with a five-angled star right at the center. Orochimaru was of course, extremely unfamiliar with this whole strange design, but as his eyes swept across the ground around the circle, he mouth gave a rare gasp of surprise:

There were strange symbols around the transmutation circle as well, though it was very faint that the dirt ground almost covered all of them up. These symbols though, weren't drawn as clean as the strange circle, as though it was swished and scrawled freely out of a big brush. Thus, Orochimaru recognized them at once: these symbols were used in ninja arts for sealing and explosive tags, in which he had often seen Sarutobi scribbling those symbols down back when they were still in Konoha.

Orochimaru frowned as he touched the familiar symbols with a finger. It was really strange; as far as he had learnt about sealing arts, the symbols weren't meant to be drawn on dirt ground, seeing that ink brushes wouldn't cooperate smoothly enough…

Then what would be the meaning of this? Why were they drawn around a strange circle? And most importantly, who drew them? Besides his teammates and himself, nobody within Hogwarts, or should he say, the whole magical world, knew about complex ninja skills such as Sealing Arts…

His thoughts swimming restlessly inside his head, Orochimaru stood up and stared fixedly at the strange combination on the ground, when something inside his brain tinked.

_Death Eaters._

Jiraiya had mentioned fighting them inside the forest before. Could it be…?

But Orochimaru quickly shook his head. True, if the Death Eaters _did_ use this seal and had somehow managed to arrive here at Hogwarts, it would certainly solve the mystery as to why Dark Wizards could enter the school grounds without breaking the enchantments Dumbledore had set up. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to wonder how in the world did those Death Eaters know about Sealing Arts— it was such a difficult skill that only Shinobi at the Jonnin level could manage to master it!

As Orochimaru continued his stare at the transmutation circle and the hand drawn seals, he took note that, perhaps, he had received the most confusing problem in his life.

---------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- ------------------------ --------

Tsunade felt light streaming into her eyelids and she rolled over in her bed to block them out, but it was no use. The sun was shining through the window and Tsunade was getting hotter and hotter until she had finally given up the desire to fall back to sleep and got up instead, rubbing her eyes and tried her hardest to suppressed a huge yawn.

After Tsunade's eyes had gotten used to the bright sunlight, she got out of bed, hastily combed her hair and was about to see if Ginny was awake when she noticed that the room she was sleeping in now wasn't even her room at all.

The Sannin blinked confusingly as she looked around her, and immediately discovered that it was actually the living room of Grimmauld Place. Then she remembered last night's events, where Remus and the others, along with herself, were involved in a fight somewhere in that grass field out there, and after they had come back she was probably too tired and fell asleep at the living room.

As to why would there be a bed in the middle of the living room Tsunade never asked, seeing at that very moment, she was snatched out of her thoughts when shouting voices could be heard in the kitchen.

The kitchen door was closed, but Tsunade had a feeling the room inside must be full of people, and she was proven right almost immediately; just as she was about to edge towards to door, it banged open with a crash and people, including most of the Weasely family and Hermione, started filing out into the living room, looking rather taken aback and scared.

"Um—" Tsunade was about to question Ginny what had happened when a figure came striding out of the kitchen in a black traveling cloak— it was Snape, whose face looked angry and frustrated as he walked pass the little crowd and reached the door.

Sirius came running behind him as well, looking as furious as ever as he shouted, "I'm warning you Snivilleus! If you DARED lay a finger on Harry during those bloody lessons—" but he was cut off shortly when Hermione quickly grabbed his arm from pulling out his wand, "Sirius! Calm down!" she pleaded desperately, eyeing Sirius's wand cautiously, "Don't cause trouble—"

"It's him who's causing trouble!" Sirius growled as he struggled out of Hermione's grip. Snape, whose hand was now on the door handle, smirked coldly and turned to face Harry, who just came out from the kitchen looking rather uneasy. "Monday, Potter," he said silkily, ignoring the protesting shouts of Sirius, "And don't be late."

Snape was about to turn the handle when he stopped. Turning slowly, Severus surveyed the people standing before him, and narrowed his eyes slightly. Tsunade thought she saw a look of fear in his black eyes, but then he turned away quickly to face Sirius.

"Where's the werewolf?" Severus asked, trying his hardest to conceal the uneasiness in his voice. Sirius's eyes flashed furiously as he bared his teeth "What do you mean _'where's the werewolf'_? Remus has a name too you know?"

"_So where is he?_"

"Since when are _you_ so concerned about your childhood enemies?" Moody said coolly, his legs making _thud, thud_ sounds on the floorboards as he made his way towards the Potions Master.

Snape glared, "To me it sounds as though his disappearance is connected to you—"

"Come to think of it," Tonks said, biting nervously at her nails, "I haven't seen him this morning either…" and Mrs. Weasely nodded thoughtfully as well, "The last time I have seen him was during that meeting late last night, in which he had appeared at the meeting in his wolf form."

This time, Tsunade was sure that Snape and shown faint signs of extreme uneasiness; his hand resting on the door twitched as Mrs. Weasely said the words 'meeting' and 'wolf form'. Harry must have noticed too, for he was staring at his least favorite teacher rather suspiciously.

Without a word, Snape swept out of the door and was gone within seconds.

"I just couldn't bring myself to trust him," Sirius growled, eyes still glaring menacingly at the spot where Snape had vanished, "Greasy git…why the hell did he ask that question?" he turned to face Moody, as though expecting an answer from him.

"His actions were suspicious enough," Moody muttered in his deep voice, "Though he's right. Where_ is_ Lupin?"

"Maybe…he went for a walk? Without telling us first?" Ron suggested. "But I don't see why he would just walk off without leaving a word," said Ginny, looking around the living room as though expecting Remus to suddenly pop up from behind the sofa.

"Oh well, I think he'll turn up soon enough," Tsunade said, trying to cheer them up a bit, "he didn't tell us he would go out and wait for the transformation last night either, right?"

Some of them nodded thoughtfully, but Tonks still looked scared. "Well…I suppose…" she stammered uncertainly a moment later, and went to make herself a cup of tea.

----------------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------- ------

At noon, Tsunade had packed her bags and bid Harry, Hermione, and the Weasely family goodbye. Mr. Weasely had actually shaken her hand a little too enthusiastically, thanking her over and over again for curing him.

After a moment of casual farewell ceremony, Tsunade stepped into the green flames produced by Floo powder, shouted 'Hogwarts!' and disappeared instantly in front of their eyes.

When Tsunade arrived at Hogwarts, she was clearly covered in soot from head to toe. Feeling rather ridiculous, she sped off towards the Girl's bathroom, meanwhile attracting curious glances from other students and teachers walking down the hall.

After a warm, soothing bath— as it would be despite the continuous wailing of Moaning Myrtle— Tsunade stepped out of the bath room, deciding it would be best to visit Orochimaru and Jiraiya first, and inform them about last night's events.

……

--------------------------- -------------------------------- ------------------------------- -----------

The environment was unbearably bitter and cold, with wind howling and rain splattering icily against the dead, smooth grass. Nothing was cheerful here. The gloomy-looking stone tower shown ominously even though the moon was clearly hidden away from thick black clouds. It stood at the very center of the vast wilderness with leafless trees as dead looking as ever and coal-black crows fluttering ominously around and around, once in a while making a blood-chilling sound that echoed through the moonless night.

Yet the Death Eaters knew perfectly well that, however uneasy they felt, they would just have to get over with. Showing fear and cowardness was clearly one of their Dark Lord's least favorite attitudes.

But tonight, when yet another Death Eater meeting had taken place, one out of twenty of them looked rather smug, despite the howling weather outside.

It was Fenrir Greyback. With golden eyes gleaming, he descended the stone steps along with other fellow Death Eaters onto the Meeting Grounds below, his back a bit hunched yet continuously baring his teeth into an evil grin, which had undoubtedly cause heads to turn, staring curiously at his rather out-of-character attitude.

Avery, who happened to be walking beside Greyback, glanced suspiciously at him as he pulled on his Death Eater mask, "It's not like you, Fenrir. Usually your face is screwed into a savage scowl." Greyback's wolfish eyes shone a bit more.

"Who wouldn' be happy when you've completed an important task set by the Dark Lord 'imself?" he rasped in his incredibly deep voice and let out a barking laugh.

Avery stared at him, unable to believe what he just heard. "He gave _you_ a mission? Without telling us first?" his voice was clearly full of jealously.

The werewolf sensed that too, for he smirked and said, "Idiotic fool. Of course he 'ad assigned me with such a mission, I'm one of the few people whom he trusts the most." Then he slumped hi way through the door, leaving Avery looking rather red in the face.

The big ancient door swung open to reveal a rather gloomy backyard. To add some effect, the backyard was full of dead trees and tombstones, so it gave you an impression of a cemetery inside one of those old-fashioned movies.

Yet of course, this cemetery was no laughing matter. Voldemort himself was sitting on a high stone chair with his hand supporting his head, leaning against the chair handle and looking bored. But when the Death Eaters slowly filed into the room, his blood red eyes shone a bit, and sat up straight, both of his hands resting on either side of the chair.

When all the Death Eaters were present, standing silently in two rows in front of the Dark Lord, he got up and walked, occasionally glancing at one or two of his followers as he went.

A few moments later, he stopped, standing in front of a Death Eater. "Ah," Tom Riddle said, a satisfied, yet cold, smile on his face, "I really have appreciated your information on Dumbledore's secret Order, Severus. It had proven to be really useful."

Severus did not dare let his mind loosen up to think in case some _real_ information got out, seeing that Voldemort was now staring at his eyes. Instead he kept his gaze steadily and bowed a little, "Thank you, my Lord."

When Voldemort edged himself toward the other Death Eaters, Severus's mind raced. _He seriously thinks that the false information I gave him are useful? _He stared fixedly at Voldemort, eyes narrowing at the same time as he approached Fenrir Greyback.

"Yes…my faithful werewolf." This time, Voldemort's eyes shone as brightly as ever, and fear flooded Snape almost immediately; his worse fear, ever since he left Grimmauld Place the other day, was unceremoniously confirmed by the smile on Voldemort's face. He was happy, and it could only mean one thing: the task assigned to Greyback had gone smoothly.

_If this is the case_, Severus thought as he shot a fearful look towards the smug-looking werewolf,_ if this is the case…then not only the Order would be in danger, Remus would also—_

Then he stopped as though realizing some horrible truth, and turned his head slightly around, scanning the graveyard before him. But he couldn't find what he was looking for.

"…Again," Voldemort said, his evil smile never leaving his face, "I'm quite astonished to see that you've actually completed the task, Greyback. As for your reward—(Greyback's hopeful eyes gleamed yet again) — I permit to let you join the Inner Circle."

The werewolf's heart leaped as he immediately knelt down onto the hard floor and bowed so deeply that his forehead touched the ground, "Oh thank you…thank you master! I swear to serve you faithfully my Lord! My loyalties towards you will not falter—"

"You can stand up now," said Voldemort, with a slight smirk. The werewolf stood and bowed once more, looking as though his only wish had come true. The other Death Eaters from the Outer Circle though, were looking rather sour-faced, including Avery. He edged towards Bellatrix and whispered angrily, "What was that bloody werewolf's mission anyway? The Dark Lord must have told you guys in the Inner Circle, at least."

But Bellatrix just smirked coldly and didn't say anything.

Tom Riddle turned to face the Death Eaters, so that all of them could see his red pupils glinting with pure evil. "All thanks to Fenrir Greyback over here," he said lazily, shifting his head carelessly over Greyback's direction, "My goal of defeating Dumbledore and Harry Potter has taken a whole new step. Once this goal's accomplished, I'll be able to proceed to my next:_ controlling the whole wizarding world._"

He laughed, and the others laughed with him, except for one, who remained rather silent.

Then one of the Death Eaters from the Outer Circle stepped forward and dropped down to his knees. "My Lord," he said as politely as he could, "Could you tell us…the ones not in the Inner Circle that…" It was rather obvious that he had trouble phrasing what he wanted to say, but Voldemort cut across him, with a voice of complete boredom, "You wanted me to tell all of you what Greyback's task was, am I right?"

Some Death Eaters snickered, and the one kneeling on the floor had gone scarlet on the face. "Y-Yes…that was what I meant, my Lord…" he stammered embarrassingly and stood back in the line once again.

"Very well then," Voldemort said, as he walked slowly, "Greyback's task was to deliver one of the members from Dumbledore's Order to me. And that person was now, of course, safely in my hands."

Death Eaters from the Outer Circle exchanged shocked yet interested looks, Greyback looked as proud as ever and Severus's heart sank to its lowest dept.

----------------- ---------------------- ------------------------------- ------------------------- -----

Wee cliffy! Well, to be honest, it wasn't much of a cliffy since most of you would probably be able to figure out what would happen in next chapter. But of course, I'll give more details as to what had happened before Remus vanished from sight ;) And perhaps, a few details too, to the full summary of Voldemort's current evil plan.


	23. Thoughts

I'm back! How were your final exams? Good? Bad? To me, Science was like, for some reason, extremely easy, yet Math was like hell…hmm, weird. It used to be the other way around…

So, exams would simply be my excuse for not updating for the past month… (Laughs nervously)…hope you won't be too angry…x(

In order to cheer you up, I'll update EVERY WEEK FROM NOW ON UNTIL SUMMER SCHOOL STARTS (which is somewhere in the early-middle-ish July. And keep in mind that I didn't take summer school because I FAILED. No!! NEVERRR!!! I decided to take Math 10, so I could go to Math 11 next year, and have a free block in Grade 12. Muhahahaha, oh I'm such a genius).

-Ignores the fact that it was actually one of the oldest tricks in the book.-

So…yeah. On with the story!

Chapter 24:Thoughts

Almost everyone in Hogwarts agreed that the winter vacation was way too short, because the next thing Jiraiya knew, he was walking down the steps— with text books clutched between his fingers— toward the DADA classroom, along with Tsunade and Orochimaru.

"Why," asked Jiraiya, "Does my very first class right after the holidays _has_ to be Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Knowing that Jiraiya was actually referring to Umbridge, Orochimaru shrugged, "Guess it's your luck." The white-haired Shinobi snorted. "I don't believe in luck," he said, picking on a loose thread on his shirt.

He then turned to Tsunade, who had remained quiet since breakfast, "Tsunade. Hey, Tsunade!" Jiraiya stuck his hand out in front of her and waved. Tsunade blinked, bewildered, "Um…Yes?"

She turned toward Jiraiya, who rolled his eyes. "Tsunade-saaan, cheer up, will you? Lupin's going to be okay. The others were just _guessing_ he's in trouble!"

But Tsunade still looked unconvinced. "_I know there's something wrong,_" she said sternly, not even bothering to speak English, "_I don't see why Lupin would just go without, at least, leaving us a note first. He's been missing for almost a week now, and if he was doing something extremely important, he would at least have told Dumbledore._"

"_Well, maybe he just went for a long walk or something,_" Jiraiya argued, "_And he forgot to tell the others that he'll be away!_"

"_Is that likely?_" Tsunade snapped back, feeling extremely annoyed.

"_Tsunade…_" Orochimaru started, but Jiraiya cut across him, "_Anything can happen!_" he, too, sound way less cheerful now, "_Why do you keep looking on the bad side of things! It's not like he got…he got kidnapped or something— OWW! Tsunade!_"

For Tsunade had furiously stomped Jiraiya on the foot and marched away, cursing in Japanese under her breath. "_What's her problem?_" Jiraiya growled, rubbing his burning foot. Orochimaru glanced after his teammate, a calculating look on his face. After a while, he said, "_Jiraiya, you should get to class now. I'll try to cheer her up._"

"_Gee, thanks._" said Jiraiya sarcastically. "_I'll see you later then._" and he disappeared into Umbridge's classroom.

Orochimaru walked the rest of his journey alone, his mind spinning with questions. Finally, he opened the door to McGonagall's Transfiguration classroom and sat right beside Tsunade, who still appeared to be unhappy.

As the class progressed, Orochimaru spent his time thinking over the Lupin-disappearing case, and finally, by tapping on Tsunade's shoulder, he whispered, "_Tell me when and where you have last seen him._"

Tsunade threw him a questioning look and whispered back, "_Well…I think it was the night when the Shinobi attacked us…_"

"_More precisely please…_" Orochimaru hissed back while trying his best not to move his mouth, for at that precise moment McGonagall had turned her head suspiciously at the pair of them.

When Tsunade was quite sure McGonagall had returned to her speech about Conjuring spells, she whispered back, "_Fine then…right before I fell asleep on the sofa after the fight, and Lupin and Sirius were there too. Precise enough?_"

"_Grimmauld Place?_" Orochimaru continued asking.

"_Obviously._"

"_Lupin was in his wolf form, right?_"

"_Yes!_" Tsunade sound frustrated, "_Why are you asking me so many questions anyway? It's not like it could help solve—_"

"Those two at the back!"

Tsunade's words were cut off by McGonagall's thunderous bark, and the whole class jumped, turning their heads around at the two Sannins.

"_See what you made me do…_" Tsunade hissed furiously, yet not daring to take her gaze off the raging Transfiguration teacher.

----------------- -------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------- ------------

Lunch wasn't enjoyable.

Even though the three of them were seated together at the long table as usual, Tsunade still refused to talk to Jiraiya, who later grunted in disgust and ended up sitting beside Fred and George instead. Orochimaru didn't really care of course; he just sat quietly beside Tsunade, drinking his pumpkin juice.

After a minute of unbearable silence, Tsunade finally spoke. "You don't believe what Jiraiya said, do you?" she asked, in a look of absolute concern. A muscle in Orochimaru's jaw twitched; he _knew_ this would be coming.

Taking his time, Orochimaru slowly wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. "Well," he started, "The possibility's low, but there's a chance of course." When he sensed that Tsunade's going to snap again, he added sternly, "Tsunade, I hate to say this, but sometimes you just have to accept what will be coming! You could comfort yourself not to worry, and hoped that he would turn up unfarmed every now and then, but if things turned out badly, you would just have to accept the truth, and the best thing you could do is to face it, instead of running away like a coward—"

"Of course I won't run away like a coward!" Tsunade's cheeks flushed angrily, "You know very well that I'm a Kunoichi Orochimaru! We are supposed to protect people in every way we can! If Lupin really is in trouble, we'll just have to save him, won't we?"

A satisfied smile crossed Orochimaru's face, "Yup, '_we'll just have to save him if he's in trouble_', you just said it yourself. If you knew you won't be running away, but facing the fact bravely like a real Kunoichi instead, then why were you acting so down and worried in the first place?"

Tsunade blinked in surprise, unable to speak for a moment. Orochimaru drained his pumpkin juice and got up, glancing toward the Gryffindor table. "I have to find someone first, and there's something important I have to do," he said, looking back at Tsunade.

"Oh and," he added, "I think I will be skipping that Toad's lesson, so just tell her I'm sick or something." And before Tsunade could call him back, he had vanished behind a huge group of chatting Hufflepuffs.

Orochimaru had spent five minutes walking around the Great Hall, trying to find the person he wanted to talk to, but with no results. Irritated, Orochimaru left the Great Hall and proceeded up the stairs, toward the library. He would have to try that place then…

Sure enough, when Orochimaru approached the wooden doors to the library, they suddenly swung open in front of him and out came Hermione, clutching several heavy books.

Orochimaru's eyes lit up and called after her. The fifth-year stopped, a surprised look on her face. "Oh! Hey Orochimaru!" Hermione smiled, "What are you doing in the libr—"

But Orochimaru quickly cut across her, "Sorry, but I need you to tell me something." Hermione looked surprised, "Oh, yes?"

"Um, well, do you know by any chance, a spell that could translate texts?"

"Translate texts? You mean into another language?"

"Well, yeah."

"Hmm…" Hermione screwed her eyes up, trying her best to remember if she had read about such a spell before. Then her eyes popped opened excitedly, "Oh, yes! I think I do!" she said, "Well, I remember that charm's called something like…_reddo_. It means among the lines of 'translate' or 'translation' anyway…yes, and I remember you have to say the name of the language you want to translate to. I'm not sure if it's right though, it's been a long time since I've read about it…"

But for the first time, Orochimaru was feeling too grateful to care. He hastily thanked her and slipped into the library without attracting attention from the hawk-like librarian.

For the next 5 minutes, Orochimaru hid himself behind a tall bookshelf, peeking out now and then to see if Madam Pince was looking at his direction. To his astonishment, the librarian had decided to leave the library.

The boy walked away from the bookshelf and got out his wand. It was obviously not from Olivander's, seeing that it was second-handed; the stick was aged, with unicorn hair sticking out at the back, making it look as shaggy as ever. Of course, it was not like Orochimaru cared; he was not as interested in magic as the other two, and would probably only use them in very special occasions. Like now for example, when ninja arts weren't designed to transform English into Japanese.

"Let's see…" Orochimaru lift his head and stared at the sign hanging on the ceiling between two bookshelves, "Isle 25-29, ma-gi-cal…ar-ti-facts…what does _that _mean?"

Frowning ever so deeply, Orochimaru stared at the sign some more, and decided that he would just have to try to use that spell Hermione gave him. Sighing, he held his wand high and pointed directly at the sign. He didn't know whether the spell would work or not, and in order to add more depressing facts, Orochimaru was just a beginner in magic…perhaps the '_reddo_' spell was meant for NEWT level?

Taking one last look behind his back to make sure no one else was behind him, he muttered, "_Reddo, Japanese._"

Nothing happened. Orochimaru cursed; he knew this would be coming.

Taking another try, he said the spell again, and still nothing happened. The sign remained as Englished as ever.

One last time, he thought. "_Reddo, Japanese_."

He made his voice sound as steady as possible, and to his surprise, the letters on the sign shimmered before him like liquid, melting and gluing themselves together, then separating, forming a totally different language.

The familiar symbols solidified once again on the piece of hanged wooden board, and Orochimaru let out a rare smile.

"Right. Magical Artifacts, _Majikaru Shutsudohin_. I get it now."

Feeling extremely satisfied, Orochimaru proceed onto another sign. "His-to-ri…of…Magic…I know that one, but History's not why I'm here for."

The next 10 minutes passed with Orochimaru occasionally muttering the _reddo_ spell at English words unfamiliar to him. Finally, he stopped in front of a sign, a satisfied smile across his face; he had finally found what he was looking for.

Orochimaru walked into the isle, with a wooden sign hanging on the ceiling that now bear the Japanese words "歩廊60-62, れんきんじゅつ。"

_(Try to find what it is; it won't be hard _x3

------------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------- ---------------- ----------------

Icy rain was still hitting against the huge glass windows when Jiraiya arrived at the Gryffindor Common room after supper. He slumped down onto a nearby armchair and grumbled, apparently frustrated. He had never seen Tsunade acting like as though the sky would fall on top of them any minute.

Jiraiya knew he had somehow triggered a nerve when he joked about Lupin being kidnapped…well, come to think of it, this would be even _more_ likely to happen, now that Lupin had been missing for a week!

Tsunade, of course, would have figured this out as well. She's not stupid. But why wouldn't she accept what Jiraiya had said? Was it simply because she doesn't want to?

"You're just lying to your own feelings Tsunade. You fell into a trap set up by your very own emotions…"

"Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya's eyes snapped open at the sound of his own name. He turned his head and saw Harry Potter standing right behind him, with a tired smile on his face.

"Everyone's acting so depressed lately, don't you think?" he asked with a smirk, helping himself onto an armchair.

"Any news about him?" Jiraiya glanced at Harry, "There'd better be, or else I think Tsunade might probably crack."

Harry shook his head. "The Order's doing everything to find him, but with no success…say, why is Tsunade so concerned anyway? Of course, I didn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about a missing person, but with her attitude…"

"Perhaps because…Lupin's acting like a big support for her," Jiraiya shift his eyes, staring fixedly at the ceiling, "About that ninja ambush Tsunade had experienced, we all knew that Lupin was the one who dragged her out of serious danger in the nick of time. And then later on, she felt ashamed."

"Why is that…?"

"Because, well…you see," Jiraiya's mind swam, trying his hardest to think of a better way to say it, "Being a Shinobi, its main purpose is to _protect a person at all costs, _that's our number one basic rule. If you have to sacrifice your life in order to protect the one you are assigned to protect, then so be it."

When Harry stared at him in disbelief and said, "Even the ones that you hate and don't know?" Jiraiya waved his hand, meaning that he didn't mind, "I'm used to it. But here's my point: even if a Shinobi died, he would still be happy, because he had died protecting someone. He had fulfilled his final duty."

Harry remained silent. Seeing this, Jiraiya continued, "Tsunade felt ashamed because she had not only failed to protect Lupin, but had let Lupin to come to her aid! It's a great embarrassment for any Shinobi in Konoha, for letting the protected to protect the protector. After that incident, I assume Tsunade had sworn, at least in her heart, that she would not place _anyone_ in danger _anymore_. She would protect anyone at any costs, in order to make up for her cowardness—"

"Then, just to make things worse, Lupin went missing," Harry finished Jiraiya's sentence for him, "Tsunade thought that, however unlikely the reason was, it was all her fault."

Harry had thought he had known Tsunade's personality for _so long_…it turned out that he had known nothing about her.

------------- ----------------- -------------------- ----------------- -------------------- -------------

The metal door shook as something hard clanged against the surface. It was the sound of a key, inserting, turning, then pulling back.

The door swung open with an ominous creak, letting out a pool of narrow light and hitting the cold stone wall with the loudest vibrating _bang_ Remus had ever heard. The sounds echoed around the huge cell as other sounds joined them. The sound of footsteps, cold but steady, descended the stairs.

The person on the floor listened to all this, yet refusing to lift his head up. Quite suddenly, the footsteps stopped in front of his cell.

"Useless."

The voice was cold, but it didn't affect the werewolf at all, "Inside your mind, I'm always useless."

Dark colored eyes narrowed. "That is correct," the owner of those eyes said. He then glanced behind him, making sure that the main door was close, and that no one was eavesdropping on their conversation. When he was about to open his mouth again, the werewolf cut across him, "Does the Order know I was kidnapped by their enemy? I assume you would have told them, Severus."

The man's anger raised; he knew perfectly well that Remus Lupin knew the Order didn't know, because he didn't tell them. How could he, though? How could he inform the Order when he was asked personally by the Dark Lord to stay in this wrenched evil manor 24 hours a day with other Death Eaters all around him? He couldn't even make any contact with Dumbledore for he might be seen and sentenced to death as a traitor to the Dark Lord.

"The Order doesn't know," Severus said in an angry voice, "How do you expect me to contact them, when I was guarded like a prisoner wherever I go? Probably because of you, I was ordered to stay in this manor at all times."

Remus felt confused, but he still didn't lift his head up, "How did that come together?"

Severus snarled, "Idiot. Haven't you figured that out yet? The Dark Lord…doesn't seem to trust me as much anymore. He locked me in just so I could not make any possible means of contact to Dumbledore, to tell him where you are, and reveal the Dark Lord's hiding place."

At this, Remus jerked his head up. Severus saw that, by the look of his appearance, he hadn't slept for a long time. "The Dark Lord…doesn't trust you anymore?" A hint of disbelief escaped Remus's golden eyes, and Severus felt a great desire to punch him.

"But…what did you do to make him—"

"I…don't know." For the first time, Severus sounded helpless.

It was true, he had no idea why the hell did Voldemort had suddenly decided to question Severus's loyalty toward him. He had done nothing to cause suspicion. It just didn't make sense.

"…You don't know…" Remus muttered to himself, apparently lost in thought. After a while he said, "Let's figure this out later. In the mean time…I want to know what Voldemort wants with me."

Severus bared his teeth at the name of the Dark Lord, but decided not to correct him; it wouldn't make any difference anyway. "It was quite obvious that he wanted a member of the Order so that he could question him," he said coldly, "And most unfortunately, Greyback had decided to choose you as a target."

Remus shifted his sitting pose a bit, when something hit Severus's mind. "Lupin," he said, "You were in your wrenched wolf form that night, am I correct?"

Remus looked up and paused a bit. "…Yes," he finally said, knowing pretty well where this conversation was going to lead to.

"Just as I thought," Severus replied, turning to leave. This took Remus by surprise.

"And take this as my greatest advice given to a light-headed werewolf such as yourself," Severus pulled the door open, sending out a screech running through the whole cell, "Next time, leave a note before waltzing out from the house. If there's a _next time_, of course."

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Whew, finished :)

Oh and, yeah why not, I'll just leave How-did-Greyback-kidnap-Remus details for the next chapter (got hit by a shower of eggs).

By the way, THANKS FOR 200 REVIEWS:'D

Oh I'm so happy. Thanks for all the support you guys have given me!! I'll try to make the story more interesting! –A look of complete enthusiasm—

By the way, here's a little something for you to my respect lol

(Delete ALL spaces)

http :// www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 55776291/


	24. revealed

Many of you would certainly notice that I didn't keep my promise. Someone go ahead and punch me. But then, you shouldn't shoot all the blames at me, because it was FlyFF online that made me all addicted and stuff, so yeah, blame the game:D (If you happen to play this online game, add me as your friend please! X3 my char name: YukiOkami.)

Btw, I received 76 on my piano exam. I'll just go kill myself now.

**Do you know this fan fic is officially ONE-YEAR-OLD:D**

Chapter 25: revealed

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with the Sannins, were slowly walking down the field toward the Care of Magical Creatures lesson, except for Tsunade that is, who had Herbiology— one of her favorite lessons so far.

Tsunade turned around, and spotted the Chinese Ravenclaw girl Cho Chang, who came running up to her with a huge pile of books.

"Hey— Tsunade!" Cho ran past the rest of the group and approached Tsunade with a pleading look in her eyes, a piece of parchment grasped tightly in her hand.

"Hi Cho," Tsunade smiled, eyeing the piece of crumpled parchment, "Do you have something to ask me?"

Cho quickly nodded and showed Tsunade her parchment; it turned out to be yesterday's homework on Bumble ferns. "Tsunade, may I ask you something? It's about this fern. I'm not sure whether the stem is full of yellow dots or red stings…"

As the two of them leaned close to examine the parchment, Jiraiya's eyes couldn't help but stare straightly at the pretty Chinese. He shifted his gaze toward his friends, and was rather surprised to see Harry— whose head was also glued to the direction of Cho— was walking towards the green house even though Hagrid's little hut was a hundred yards to the right.

"Ha-Harry! You're going to crash!"

It was Ron who called out, but too late; The Boy Who Lived walked straight into the green house and smacked headfirst onto the glass-made walls with a loud bang. Everyone shifted their gaze toward the sound.

"Harry!"

Hermione and Ron hurried over as Harry toppled onto the floor while covering his injured forehead painfully. Acting as though this little incident was such a huge miracle, the Slytherins howled with laugher, and as usual, Malfoy was one of them.

"Sometimes I really wonderhow he had managed to _survive_ after You-Know-Who's attack," He called down the hill so that everyone could hear every word he said, "I mean, he couldn't even overcome a piece of _glass_!"

Ignoring the hideous laughers, Harry grumpily got to his feet and hurried towards Hagrid's cabin, in the mean time trying his best to not look at Cho Chang.

Hermione and Ron nervously followed and disappeared through the steep slope. Jiraiya, who had witnessed this whole incident, shot Cho Chang an admiring look and continued his way down the hill.

The Care of Magical Creatures lesson was, as usual, unsurprisingly boring. Hagrid was somehow getting more and more jumpy ever since Umbridge had decided to inspect his class, and soon it had turned out that, in order to make things safer, he had delayed all the sections that included Blast-Ended Skrewts, Ashwinders, Chimaeras, and most importantly, **Acromantulas, much to Ron's relief. Yet whether the Acromantula Hagrid was referring to was actually Aragog Harry never knew.**

**After the lesson Orochimaru lingered behind.**

**"Jiraiya." he tapped Jiraiya on the shoulder, and Jiraiya, who was about to get up from the grass, turned around. "What? Hey— what's that look on your face?"**

**But Orochimaru didn't answer. He peered around to make sure everyone was heading back toward the castle, and then said quietly, "I want you to see something."**

"What do you want me to see?" Jiraiya asked curiously, thinking that whatever Orochimaru was going to show him wouldn't be at all pleasant.

"Just come," Orochimaru replied, and lead Jiraiya all the way into the outskirts of the forest, where he had discovered the utterly strange symbol two days ago.

"I've found out something that might interest you," Orochimaru said as he walked, Jiraiya trailing behind him, "And then yesterday, I went to the library and confirmed what I saw."

"Wait—_ you_? To the library?" Jiraiya couldn't believe his ears; wasn't Orochimaru one of those people who were too smart for school?

"…Just shut up and come in here."

He led Jiraiya through a curtain of leaves and branches and approached the little clearing, where the transmutation circle was barely visible in the shade.

Jiraiya stared for a moment.

"…Did you do this?" he finally said, pointing innocently at it. Orochimaru glared. "Jiraiya, for the last time, be serious!" the Sannin hissed furiously as Jiraiya held up his hands defensively, "I've discovered this symbol a few days ago, right here, in this forest. And look over here—"

He pointed at the ninja sealing symbols. "—seems familiar?" he asked, turning to face the white haired Sannin.

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah, I know them. Sealing arts. But what's it got to do with this complicated circle in the center?"

Orochimaru smirked and said, "I've found the answer on this very book."

Pulling out a thick, shabby book from his bag, he showed the cover to Jiraiya, bearing the Japanese words "れんきんじゅつ".

"Wait, wait a second!" Jiraiya took the book from Orochimaru and examined the title, a completely shocked and confused expression on his face. Extremely satisfied by Jiraiya's reaction, Orochimaru eagerly asked, "_Now_ do you know what this strange symbol is? You've figured it out now, right?"

But Jiraiya continued to look confused. "No…I mean, this is a library book…" he said slowly, and Orochimaru frowned, "Yeah, so?"

"No what I mean is that…it's a Hogwarts Library book," Jiraiya looked up, "…then why is it written in Japanese?"

Orochimaru snatched the book away from Jiraiya and hit him across the face with it.

"OW! What was that for!"

"_How slow are you in the head BOKE?_"

Orochimaru couldn't believe it; sure, Jiraiya could be extremely annoying sometimes (without knowing it himself), and it could drive anyone to insanity, but this? This was just too much for such a sensitive 15 year old Sannin to handle.

"You don't get this do you?" Orochimaru stabbed his finger on the poor hard cover, "It's _Renkinjutsu_! The art of creation by the use of metal!_ Alchemy_! Even the illustration on the cover says it all! The circle pattern that was surrounded by the Sealing symbols is actually a transmutation circle of Alchemy! Do you get it now?"

"Wait, so what you're trying to say is that, whoever drew this is trying to _combine Ninja techniques with Alchemy?_" Jiraiya said, ignoring the tone of his outraging comrade.

Orochimaru sighed, "Yup, you got that right this time."

"But who drew this?" Jiraiya's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "no one, apart from us and Tsunade, knows how to perform Sealing Arts in the Wizarding world…" then a picture in his mind flashed pass abruptly, "unless…"

"Unless it were – (see A/N) - those Shinobi who attacked Tsunade," Orochimaru finished Jiraiya's sentence for him as he knelt down on the dirt and flipped open his book, "Though the chance is slim, it could still be them. And don't forget about the Death Eaters as well, according to you, you spotted them on the outskirts of the forest, am I correct?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya looked down at him, then surveyed around the woods, "but I couldn't remember if this spot was the right place…"

"You don't have to, and it doesn't matter" said Orochimaru without glancing up, "because our main point here is to find out what does this transmutation circle _mean_."

Jiraiya glanced at the book curiously over Orochimaru's shoulder while he leafed through the pages; most of the yellowed parchment contained illustrations of all sorts of transmutation circles used by Alchemists, and below the drawings would be a paragraph about the circle and ingredients needed to activate it.

"Oh, Wait—!" yelled Jiraiya as he stopped Orochimaru from turning to the next page, "This looked familiar, does it not?"

Orochimaru stared at the page, and looked up, squinting at the barely visible circle. It did look rather alike…there's the eight angled star at the center surrounded by three different layers of perfect circles…then on the outside, the strange, twisting words matches as well…the hour glass…the birds…the sign of Sagittarius and Leo…

But Orochimaru shook his head, "it's still not right." When Jiraiya gave him a questioning look, he said, "Look at the description at the bottom of the page. This transmutation circle is used for steadying one's soul in his body temperamentally, so that when the said person is doing a dangerous experiment, he won't die completely even when something has gone wrong—"

"Ooohh that would just be even _worse_," Jiraiya grimaced, "I mean, what's the point? If the experiment exploded then you would be forced to lock yourself inside a human meat cake—"

"—and SO!" Orochimaru shouted over him, greatly irritated, "This circle doesn't make sense here. I don't see any remains of the experiment and something tells me that whoever drew this combination on the ground didn't draw it because of his own safety."

Jiraiya's eyes shifted onto the Sealing Arts. "Hmm, you could always try to_ identify_ the Sealing Art and see if there are any clues, if you know what I mean."

Orochimaru thought over this a bit while staring the familiar symbols. "Fine then," he finally said, "But identifying them would be really annoying…"

"Let's see…that's the symbol for Boar…then monkey, horse, monkey, rat, rat, rat, dog," said Jiraiya, reading off the first vertical line of symbols directly in front of him, "Sensei told me that, in order to identify a sealing art, first find the line that contains the twelve Chinese Zodiac. Now I've found them. Is the pattern familiar to you?"

Orochimaru's eyes lit up. "Yeah…" he said slowly, "It's the general art of Transportation."

"You mean teleportation?" Jiraiya asked.

"No. The Art of Transportation has many different kinds. Whether or not it's a Teleportation I have no idea, but we'll find out soon enough. Continue to the line towards your right, Jiraiya…"

(A/N: Is it "it were" or "it was"? Because the Shinobi(s) are not single…but it sounds kind of weird to use 'it were', and it sounds even weird if I use 'it was'…I suck at grammar. If anyone knew the proper way please tell me, thanks :D)

-------------- ------------------- -------------------- ------------------ ------------------ -----------

An hour after dinner.

"Yo guys!" Fred smacked his hand down onto Ron's shoulder, causing him to yelp in surprise.

"Stop doing that!" Ron snapped.

"_Stop doing that!_" George mimicked in a babyish voice and the twins roared with laugher. Ron muttered something inappropriate and turned to leave, and the twins stopped him.

"Did you guys see the notice on the hall just before dinner?" the two of them asked, and Hermione raised her eyebrows, "What, the advertisement about your stupid Weasely Wissy Whizzes?"

"It's Weasely Wizard Wheezes," said George, rolling his eyes, "and no, it's not about that, it's the notice about Snape being absent."

Harry and Ron jerk their heads around. "What did you say?" they said in union, causing Fred and George to smirk amusingly.

Somehow Lee Gordon managed to pip in. "Don't you guys ever read notices?" he said, raising his eyebrow, "The notice said that Snape would absent for a long period of time, so Dumbledore has decided to appoint a substitute for us."

"Oh maaan," moaned Ron as he flopped down onto an armchair, "Could this day get any better?"

The lump in Harry's heart lightened as well. "I wonder what he's up to though?"

"Something to do with the Order, of course," said Fred confidently, "I mean, being such a greasy spy isn't easy, is it?"

Everyone laughed, yet Lee Gordon looked confused, "What are you guys talking about? Snape's a spy? And what's the 'Order'?"

Everybody suddenly stopped laughing, and Fred quickly pulled Lee aside. "You know…" he started as his brain spun around for a suitable excuse, "it's kind of like a joke, don't take it seriously, mate…"

"Yeah," George added, "It's just this silly little—imaginary…thing we'd somehow developed during the summer holidays…with Harry and the others—"

"I'm not getting in a word you said and you're doing a poor job trying to convince me with your excuse," Lee crossed his arms and said matter-of-factly. Harry rushed forward. "No, it's like this action movie I've been telling them about during the summer," he said, "And…er, you know, Live Free or Die Hard? That awesome movie that just hit the theatres?"

Lee's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! You watched that too?" his suspicion evaporated as quickly as it had come and Harry had somehow found himself into a pointless conversation with an enthusiastic muggle-born.

The others slipped away silently towards the common room portrait and stepped out into the dark hallway.

"Let's wait 'till Lee goes to bed, then we can go back in," Fred said, smiling innocently. Hermione glared at him, "Next time, think before you speak." But George looked annoyed. "Yeah? Well you laughed with us too!" he retorted.

"_Oh well, anyone could have laughed once in a while!_"

Everyone jumped— Ron actually shrieked— at the echoing voice running through the darken hallway. Everyone turned their heads toward the sound and Sirius, Moody, and Tonks emerged through the darkness.

Hermione gave a soft 'oh!' and the boys blinked.

"Yo!" Sirius greeted them, holding up a hand, the other inside his pocket. For some reason, he was wearing a black baseball cap with a pure white Nike logo stitched to the front. He wore faded jeans and jacket.

He was not the only one going modern.

"Why are all of you dressed like Muggles?" Ron asked, narrowing his eyes, "If you don't want to attract as much attention here— especially you, Sirius— you would want to choose robes instead."

"You sound so much like your mother, Ron," Sirius smirked, "Look, we came here to talk to Tsunade and Harry, have you kids seen them?"

"Harry's inside," Hermione pointed towards the common room, "And I guess Tsunade's in the library. I saw her 10 minutes ago."

"Tonks, you go fetch Tsunade then," Sirius said, "Ron, you go get Harry. And the rest of you people, follow me, we're going to the Headmaster's office."

---------------- ------------------ -------------------------- ------------------------- ---------------

The beautiful oak colored door swung open, and Dumbledore's office was once again revealed before Harry's eyes. He stepped in with Sirius at his side, and the others followed suite.

Dumbledore was seated, as usual, right in the middle of his office on his magnificent chair. Fawks was singing softly on his perch, and Tsunade was stunned by his sight. Such a beautiful phoenix…why hadn't she seen him the last time she visited the Headmaster's office?

She turned her gaze back at Dumbledore, who was now waving his wand in the air so that nine straight-back armchairs appeared in front of his desk. "Please sit down." He nodded toward the party of people standing awkwardly in front him, fished a peppermint from one of his desk drawer, popped it into his mouth, and started chewing.

There was a moment of the sound of scraping chairs.

Then Dumbledore cleared his throat, "I've held this meeting for only one purpose."

"About Lupin's disappearance, we all know that," Grunted Moody, and everyone nodded. "So, have you found anything yet? Professor Dumbledore?" Fred and George asked together.

Dumbledore looked sadly up at them. "I've _almost_ received information on Lupin's whereabouts, but failed." Tsunade sat up. "How come?" she asked in concern, "are you sure he's okay?"

"This you do not need to worry," Dumbledore sighed, "Severus has confirmed his safety two days ago. But, he was interrupted before he could tell me where Lupin is…"

"Why was he interrupted?" Harry asked, frowning deeply.

"Severus was forced to remain by Voldemort's side, guarded by Death Eaters twenty-four hours a day, so as to cut all possible means of contact with me."

"But why would he suddenly do that?" Ron questioned, unable to contain his curiosity, "Snape— I mean, Professor Snape has been running in and out from You-Know-Who to Headquarters for years, it's been going on for so long, so why would You-Know-Who suddenly sack him from being a spy?"

"The only reason for this is that, Voldemort, somehow, does not seem to trust him these days," said Moody in his low, grunting voice, "And ever since Lupin went missing— in which we all guessed was Voldemort's doing— Voldemort was cautious about Severus revealing Lupin's whereabouts to Dumbledore, so he had decided to lock him in as well."

"But if that's so…" said Hermione slowly, "How _did _Professor Snape make contact with you?"

"His chance was not easy to grasp," said Dumbledore, "he told me that he had knocked out two of the Death Eaters that were with him at the time and had approximately one minute to contact me and tell me what I needed to know, but our conversation was cut short when he sensed that another Death Eater was coming his way…"

Dumbledore's last words fell into silence, and so did the whole room. Even Fawks had stopped singing.

Finally, Sirius broke the heavy tension. "In the mean time," he said seriously, "I've thought over _this_ a bit. It's that, I find the fact about Lupin disappearing right under our nose is just too…impossible."

Tsunade looked startled, "What do you mean?"

Sirius glanced at her. "You were asleep Tsunade, so you didn't notice. On the night after that ninja ambush, we'd arranged another meeting, and even Dumbledore was there. Lupin, who was in his wolf form at the time, had also attended the meeting from start to finish, everyone saw that. And even after the meeting, when most of the people had left, one of us would still stay awake by the door, you know, just for safety's measure. We would switch positions every hour or so. So the weird thing was, nobody saw Lupin leave the house."

"Well," George shrugged, "he could have Disapparated, you know. Or he could have walked through the back door."

"George, there's only one main door in Grimmauld Place, and people would have heard the popping noise cause by Apparition." said Sirius tiredly, and George quickly shut his mouth.

But Harry stood up, "But have you asked_ all_ of the members who had attended the meeting whether or not they'd seen Lupin leave the house?"

"Who would not?" said Tonks, speaking for the first time since their entry into Dumbledore's office, "We've asked all of them, though they said they were too concentrated on the meeting that they didn't even _know_ there was a wolf in the house." She exhaled frustratedly.

"Oh, I really hope I wasn't upstairs fast asleep in my bed," muttered Hermione regretfully, "Maybe I would have noticed something unusual then, seeing that I couldn't attend the meeting."

"Hey, don't blame yourself for that," Harry stared at her in disbelief, "It's definitely not your fault that Lupin's missing. Plus, it was almost five in the morning when Tsunade and I went back to sleep, every teenager would be too tired to wake up at this time of—"

"Wait a second!"

Tsunade stood up, her eyes wide. Everyone stared at her.

"Do you want to say something, Tsunade?" Dumbledore asked in concern.

"I-I saw him," Tsunade stammered, "I've seen him leave the house all along…and I couldn't even remember it!" A cry of disbelief escaped her mouth and she covered it with her hands.

"You saw him?" Harry and Sirius jumped up. Even Dumbledore seemed surprised. "But you were asleep!" cried Sirius, "or did you wake up during our meeting?"

"I'm not sure," said Tsunade, as she nervously grasped the sides of her chair, "I think I was awaken by some sort of noise after I had fallen asleep. My vision was still blurred when I half opened my eyes, and I'm _sure_ I saw Lupin walking pass me towards the door!" Tsunade took a deep breath, "I couldn't remember this part probably due to the fact that I was too sleepy at the time. I thought it was a dream…"

"If you really saw him walk towards the door," said Tonks cautiously, "Did you see him come back?"

To everyone's disappointment, Tsunade nodded. "Dammit," muttered Fred, "that means we still don't know how he had disappeared."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and thought over this. When he opened them again, he turned to Fred and said, "Mr. Weasely, I think we do know, at least, _when_ he had disappeared. If nobody except for Tsunade had seen him leave the house, then the only possible explanation is to say that Lupin's disappearance was linked to the time in which he had decided to cross through the main door around five in the morning."

"Wow, so it must be pure coincidence when Tsunade woke up and saw Lupin leave the house." breathed Ron.

"No…it's not coincidence at all."

The speaker was Sirius, who was frowning so deeply that it turned out as though he had a headache. "It's not coincidence, Ron," He said, causing the boy to stare at him, "Tsunade said she woke up because of some sort of noise. And I'll bet anything that the noise came from the front door: it had to be that wizard postman who is disguised— very poorly though— as a Muggle mailman. He is actually a member of the Order, but his main job is to deliver posts to some Wizarding homes living in Muggle towns in which owls are unable to locate the address. Like this place for example: the whole place is invisible, so the owls are unable to see it.

"He always arrives at 5 o'clock to deliver posts, so I'm sure Tsunade woke up because he had knocked on the door," Sirius explained. "He never rings the doorbell, seeing that he knew my mother very well." He added, looking disgusted.

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore nodded, "Heithal Novak, a really efficient member for the Order, I haven't seen him for a long period of time." He glanced at Sirius. "You meant to say that, when Heithal knocked on the door at five— in the meantime waking Tsunade as well— Lupin went to get the post, am I correct?"

"Yes, that's definitely what I think," said Sirius, nodding seriously. But Fred smirked at him, "shouldn't dogs be getting the posts instead of wolves?" Hearing this, Sirius twitched and glared at him. George laughed.

"Get serious over here!" boomed Moody, stomping his wooden leg on the hard floor. Everyone flinched.

"So, Lupin went out to get the post…" Hermione started, "…but then Tsunade saw that he came…back…_oh!_" Suddenly her eyes were so wide that Harry was quite surprised they didn't fall off; Hermione jumped up excitedly from her chair, pointed her finger straight at Tsunade and yelled, "When Lupin came back from Novak the mailman, did you see him holding_ any _posts between his teeth?"

Tsunade was rather startled by Hermione's sudden reaction. "Um, well…no. I don't remember seeing any…" she said, which somehow made Hermione even more jumpy.

"Yes! It's weird, isn't it?" she said excitedly, standing up and looking around the crowd of bewildered people, "Lupin went to receive the post at the door but came back with none! Won't that be rather unusual?"

"Well, Hermione," said Ron, looking up at her, "Perhaps Novak didn't come to deliver posts, perhaps he has something to tell the Order or Dumbledore instead!"

"No, Hermione's right," grunted Moody, "if he_ had _something to tell us, why wouldn't he just come in and talk to us? AND Lupin couldn't pass on his message as well," he added,when Ron was about to interrupt him, "he's a wolf at the time, and even though there're charms for communicating with animals, I don't see why Novak would bother to use it on Lupin when he and Dumbledore were just some feet away."

Ron fell into silence, thinking hard.

"So, as I was saying," said Hermione, "It was odd to see Lupin coming back without the posts. It seems as though—"

"—that wolf wasn't Lupin at all." Harry concluded for Hermione.

Every single person in the room stared at Harry and Hermione, and Dumbledore smiled, "I knew you kids would figure it out."

Fred and George turned their heads sharply at him. "Wait," said Fred. "Do you mean to say that you knew of this _all along_?" said George, sounding almost unbelievable.

"My guess was confirmed when Tsunade said that Lupin didn't bring in the posts," said Dumbledore cheerfully, and turned to Hermione, "In other words, Hermione's brain is as clever as mine."

Hermione blushed, and the others laughed.

"If that is true though, that there was another wolf," Tonks said, frowning, "who would it be?"

"Most likely a person from our enemy," said Sirius darkly. This would surely be a _huge_ problem for the Order…

"Sirius," sighed Dumbledore as he noticed Black's expression, "I think we are in big trouble now…"

"You're right," Tonks, who was clearly turning paler and paler at the moment, said in a small voice, "If it was a werewolf working for You-Know-Who…that means…he or she would have heard everything we had said during the meeting…oh Merlin!"

"Wait…" said Harry, his heart beating extremely fast, "It could also mean that…Voldemort knows where Grimmauld Place is!"

Fred and George swore, Hermione bit her lip nervously, Tsunade gripped her chair even more tightly, and Ron's gaze was unfocused, his expression full of disbelief. The adults turned their heads toward the Headmaster, as though asking him what to do, and Dumbledore closed his eyes, thinking that his worse fear for the Order had come.

------------------------ -------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------- -----

Oh well, this chapter's, like, way longer than usual, I've used up 14 pages in Word to write this lol (Hope there won't be any Typos!)

YES! OotP the movie came out today! I think I'll watch it during the weekends :D They also say that near the end of the movie (where the fight in the Department of Mysteries takes place) you could wear 3D glasses to enjoy it, 'cause they're going 3D! Holy crap I can't wait x3

Btw, I assume all of you guys have preordered Deathly Hallows, right:)


	25. Where he lied

THE FOLLOWING A/N CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DH, SKIP THIS AND PROCEED TO THE STORY INSTEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED! I HATE SPOILING IT FOR EVERYONE WHO HADN'T READ THE BOOK. REALLY, I KNOW HOW IT FELT. THANKS AGAIN, WIKIPEDIA. T-T

23/7/2007

It's finally out…

Oh my…I feel…I don't know, sad perhaps? And thanks to Wikipedia, it had spoiled most of the story for me…I feel like killing it right now. Because I haven't read the story yet— (pre-ordered it at Amazon)— I'm getting all jumpy and stuff.

Have you guys read the Deathly Hollows yet? If you guys finished them, please tell me what you think, because I bet some of you would know how I felt about Snape…I mean, I know I have to get this over with…it's just so unfair that he…you know. :'(

Of course, I know that sometimes being a good person won't have anything in return, but still…I feel so bad for him because his _whole life_ was such a disaster…from family problems to being bullied to having forced to see the only one he loved had ended up marrying his rival. Gosh I feel like hexing JK Rowling now… T-T Oh and, one more thing I'm not satisfied about his death, is that, well, he died too…randomly. That's all I can say. He could have deserved _more_, know what I mean? At least make him involved in a fight with the Order and suddenly spun around and started to attack the Death Eaters and Voldemort instead, causing the whole Order to discover that he was really helping them, all along. But then somehow, he got killed in the end. An ending like _that_, and I won't feel entirely frustrated with JKR. Of course, every Severus fan would want him to live after the war…to want him to live a quiet life along with the Order, just a quiet life, and it'll be good enough for all of us.

Ok ok I'm getting way too emotional here lol XD It's just that it really irritates me because for some strange reason, every single character that I liked in any other anime, books, TV shows— they all ended up six feet below. T-T

And keep in mind that I'm a really sensitive reader; I'm not one of those people who could just read it, and accept it, thinking that the whole thing is just a story. I want to be like them though, so that I won't have to suffer the aftereffects of death. X (

Overall, no matter how I hate JKR for chucking too many deaths in one book, I still have to thank her for writing this. She had created one of the greatest masterpieces in history.

So on with the story. (Wow, I've used up a page for writing the A/N lol)

PS (And I'll remember you too, Fred, along with other characters that deserved a hug. Yes, including Mad-Eye…no, come to think of it…maybe a pat on the back would be enough –sweat drop-)

Chapter 26: Where he lied

Hogwarts didn't have alarm clocks, as far as Muggle-Borns could tell. So, what could they possibly do to get up on time, so that they wouldn't miss breakfast and be late for –most importantly for some— Snape's class?

Some students would use their owls; tell them to hoot loudly at seven in the morning and all alarm problems would be solved. Or, they could rely on their roommates. Yet these methods were soon to be proven inefficient, seeing that some owls weren't as bright as others in which they would surely share some communication difficulties with their owners, and roommates would often oversleep.

Some Muggle-Borns had once asked their friends, "Why don't you guys just use alarm clocks? All you have to do is rotate the trigger."

And their replies would always be, "I never trust Muggle _tecnogies_…what if it exploded?"

"It's _technologies_, Ron! And it won't explode!"

Today though, was rather different. The entire population of Hogwarts was jerked awake by something other then animal hoots; a high, ear-spitting scream that came from the library.

And the scream didn't just stop. Another scream followed the first, then another, then another, then another as though the person wasn't getting enough of the shock at all.

The sudden disturbing noise had caused considerable damage too. All five people in Harry's dorm tumbled out of bed, tangled between sheets while looking around fearfully, with Dean yelling, "A terrorist attack! A terrorist attack!"

Jiraiya and Tsunade, though sleeping in different dorms, sprang up form their beds at the same moment, with Jiraiya actually throwing out a kunai due to his ninja reflexes. The sharp weapon stuck itself firmly onto the wall, merely missing George's ear by an inch. Oh well…you wouldn't have your ear stuck to your face for long anyways, thanks to your original author.

Things were just as bad inside Dumbledore's office. Although there were approximately three floors separating the library from it, the unbearable noise turned out to be just as loud.

"I'D SAY," shouted Phineas over the horrible screams, "THAT PERHAPS MY DEAR GREAT GREAT GRANDSON HAD DECIDED TO MOVE HIS MOTHER'S POTRAIT INTO HOGWARTS?"

Phineas, who was fast asleep inside his frame, had been unceremoniously jerked awake by the unexpected noise, causing him to tumble sideways into his neighbors portrait, who in the mean time was knitting— with considerably sharp needles.

Although Phineas didn't bleed— seeing that he was a 2D image— the place where the needles had attacked him still hurt like hell.

"No, I don't think so, Phineas," said Dumbledore pleasantly, barely audible over all the screaming and yelling, as he inclined his head to glance over at the ex-ex-ex-Headmaster rubbing his left arm, "I think it's just Madam Pince making her usual racket about books."

"Usual? USUAL?" bellowed Phineas in disbelief, "I've never heard of such a scream in precisely three-hundred-and-ninety-four-years!"

"Minus your great-grand daughter?"

"Well…Yeah. Minus my great-grand daughter. BUT STILL."

The confusion had soon come to a halt, when the Head of Houses had decided to pay a visit to the library. It turned out that Madam Pince had woke up this morning wanting to make a daily check on her valuable books, when she found out that almost half the library had somehow transformed itself into an unrecognizable language. She was _horror-struck_ at that time.

Unfortunately for the Head of Houses, Madam Pince was still looking awful twenty minutes later. "T-T-This is absolutely—"

"Unbearable, yes we_ know _Pince," McGonagall said in a tired voice, "You've said that five times already, now would you please calm down? It's just a book."

Madam Pince hiccoughed at the sentence 'it's just a book' and pointed her finger shakily at McGonagall as though accusing her for swearing, "Y-y-you don't know how v-valuable –hic- these books are to me! How can one do s-s-such a thing to my poor b-b-books! –Hic- They're literally m-m-my—"

"Life," finished Snape in a bored voice, while rubbing at the bruised spot on his forehead—(he had banged onto a nearby cupboard when Madam Pince screamed)—"Unless you haven't notice, you've said that four times already."

Two floors below the library, Orochimaru found himself lying quite still on his bed as his other roommates fidgeted around like frightened mice, discussing about the awful screaming noise that had occurred some thirty minutes ago.

The boy smirked, feeling hugely amused by the librarian's reaction. He had never thought about the consequences of transforming books without permission. Oh well, it turned out pretty good, did it not?

------------------------- ------------------------ -------------------------- ---------------------- ---

Thankfully for everyone else, though, this short-lived chaotic event had died out soon enough, and everything in Hogwarts was normal again.

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's go save him!" cried Jiraiya, the moment he was informed about Dumbledore's latest discovery on Lupin's case.

Tsunade was undoubtedly disgusted by Jiraiya's immediate reaction, "Oh? So you actually know _where_ Lupin is? Do you expect us to go storming into every single evil-looking house and see if Voldemort lives there, in order to rescue Lupin?"

"Seems to me that we'll just have to try," said Orochimaru matter-of-factly, before returning his gaze onto the Alchemy book he had stolen from the library a few days ago.

Tsunade twitched with anger, "So you two could just sit here and do nothing while Lupin relies on the edge of his life? At least show some concern!"

"What are you talking about!" snapped Jiraiya, outranged, "I showed enough enthusiasm just then, and what did I get? Spats!"

"I wasn't talking to you, Jiraiya! I was speaking to Orochimaru here!"

"Well, you seem to be facing me more than to Orochimaru!"

"Enough!"

Orochimaru didn't shout, but his tone was loud enough to make both of his comrades shut up. He looked at them in turn, unblinking, placing his book down on the coffee table in front of him. Then he sighed heavily. "Tsunade," he said, "If you really want to rescue Lupin that badly, then I advise you to wait at least one more day, after I've finished reading this book—"

Tsunade looked furious, "Who in their_ hell_ would wait until you've finished pouring over your stupid book! What's the point—"

"THE POINT IS, TSUNADE," shouted Orochimaru, drowning out Tsunade's voice, "Is that I believe Alchemy has A LOT to do with this case! Jiraiya and I checked yesterday, down by the forest, to confirm something in which was out of the ordinary."

"And what exactly, is out of the ordinary?"

"A transmutation circle combined with our all too familiar Sealing Arts."

Tsunade stared at him, apparently confused, "…What?"

"You heard me, Tsunade," said Orochimaru, glaring at her, "I'd expect you'd go all shaky again? Hearing that there is more Shinobi-related stuff in the Wizarding World?"

Tsunade's brain swam. She didn't speak.

"Well then," said Orochimaru, getting up from his chair, with his book tucked under his arm, "If you guys will just wait patiently for one more day until I've figured out this damned mystery, then you can do whatever you want, I won't argue."

He stopped at the common room entrance, and turned back to face them, "In fact, I would be happy to come along. I haven't gotten into a fight for quite some time now; I bet it'll be so much fun fighting off Death Eaters…"

Jiraiya smirked widely as he leaned back on his armchair, "Geeze, Orochimaru, I thought Death Eaters were a bunch of crap for you…wouldn't it be better to fight _Voldemort_ instead?"

Like Jiraiya had expected, Orochimaru's golden eyes gleamed.

"It would be an honor," he said sarcastically, as the last of his shadows glided out of the portrait hole.

------------------- --------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------------------

Heavy, painful panting echoed around the walls as though it had caused the owner an awful lot of energy to just maintain his own breathing.

"Such disappointments…_Gryffindors_," said Voldemort in a disgusted tone as though the word had somehow insulted him, "Why are all Gryffindors such stubborn men? Could you tell me a reason, Lupin?"

Slightly catching his breath, Lupin shifted at his awkward position on the floor. Even though sweat was pouring like a river over his face, his muscles were too sour to command his left hand to wipe them off, while his right remained inside his bloody mouth, in order to keep him from screaming.

Ignoring the sheering pain from his injured hand, Lupin took his bloody hand off his mouth and glared up at the inhuman figure standing in front of him.

"No reason?" said Voldemort, sounding amused. The Death Eaters standing around them laughed, "What about your hand, Remus? What does that symbolize about Gryffindors? Does it mean bravery and courage…by biting off your own fingers?"

The cruel laugher around Remus grew louder. He did not really care though. He knew Voldemort _knew_ why he had bitten his hand; to prevent himself from showing any weakness, especially to a person whom everyone among the Wizarding world feared.

"Just…save your breath," panted Lupin as he tried his best to stand, but his legs were somehow too shaky to support his whole body, so in the end he had only managed to lean against his arm, "I'm rather surprised that…you still wanted to question us even though you…know very well that our mouths will remain shut under any circumstances…"

Voldemort stared down at him with curiosity, and smiled, almost in a friendly way. He then gave a little flick of his wand.

Remus's body had once again exploded with unbearable pain, and he was so surprised at Voldemort's sudden attack that he screamed, not being fast enough to muffle it with his hand.

Voldemort laughed, and his followers jeered at the top of their voice. "You seemed to have shown some 'weakness' now, haven't you?" Voldemort said with unlimited satisfaction etched on his face, his voice piercingly loud around the room.

The worse situation for Remus though, was that when Voldemort was taunting him in front of his Death Eaters, the Crucius Curse still hadn't lift. _If this continues_, Remus thought wildly,_ I would probably end up like Frank Longbottom and his wife…_ and the truth suddenly struck him like a club in the face; _now _he knew exactly how the couple had felt when Bellatrix had tortured them,_ now_ he knew that, at this very moment when the two of them had failed to endure so much physical pain, they had hoped against hope to choose_ death_, like every other person would, rather than continuous, and endless, tortures…

"BASTARD!!"

Remus's furious bellow was so sudden that some of the Death Eaters stopped laughing at once, looking rather taken aback.

"BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD!!!"

Lupin had never been so furious in his life. No, he was not furious at Voldemort for torturing him unceremoniously in front of others, but he was furious at Voldemort for torturing _other_ innocent people and thrusting them into an endless pit of darkness like a cold-hearted beast with absolutely no pity in their eyes. Lupin couldn't understand how the hell Voldemort had ended up like this; he heart was even crueler than the Devil itself…no, correct that…he didn't even have a heart at all…

Voldemort glanced at the figure on the floor with yet another curious expression on his face, and with another flick of his wand, the curse lifted, and Lupin slumped, defeated, onto the stone floor like a dog starving to death. But his eyes were golden with fury as he looked up at the Dark Lord.

"Ah, I see," said Voldemort, "Your eyes still change color according to your emotions, does it not?"

"Just kill me!" rasped Lupin, his voice soar from screaming, "You know you're just wasting your time! I won't tell you anything…I won't betray Dumbledore!"

"Don't be so sure," said Voldemort coldly, "I understand human emotions well, werewolf, seeing that I used to be human myself; one can sometimes give up everything just to escape the misery and hopelessness they're in— yes,_ everything_, Lupin." For Lupin had scowled, looking extremely unconvinced.

"Hopelessness is a very powerful emotion, Lupin. All the prisoners in Azkaban hates it, like your friend, Sirius Black……refuse to believe it? Very well then…" Voldemort turned away from him, pacing around the wide, dark room, and the Death Eaters silently watched, "I'll ask my questions, Lupin, and if you agree to answer them, I'll do you no harm, and let you go straight away. And then…you will never have to know how it feels to be hopeless."

He paused right there, and turned around. But Remus was ready for anything; if that bastard meant to torture him until he could no longer stand it and reveal everything he knew about the Order, then Voldemort will be greatly disappointed; he had learnt to keep his mouth shut from the very start.

"Question one," Voldemort held up a long, thin finger mockingly, and his followers snickered, "Does the three_ newcomers_ live, in Dumbledore's Headquarters?" and Lupin froze.

"…What?" said Lupin harshly, unable to believe what he was hearing. Why, out of all things, would he want to know about the three ninjas…?

"You heard me, Lupin," said Voldemort, his snake-like eyes shimmering dangerously with crimson, "Now tell me, and you won't bear the consequences."

"What do you want with them!" shouted Lupin as he struggled to get up. _If he intends to pull them into this,_ he thought furiously, _I'm going to beat the crap out of him!_ "They're—they have…they have nothing to do with this!"

"Just answer the question!" shouted Bellatrix, pulling out her wand. Remus, who had just gotten up to his feet, felt an invisible hand pull at the front of his shirt and was instantly smacked down onto the floor. Bellatrix was about to humiliate him again when a hand reached out and held onto her wand.

"Do not use unnecessary force on him when the Dark Lord told you not to," said Snape coldly, and Bellatrix snatched her wand away from him with a snort.

"It's none of your business Remus, to know what I'm up to," Voldemort sat back on his chair, "You're job is to lend me information, and that, will be your only job."

"Then I quit," smirked Remus, "Don't expect me to tell you anything that concerns the Order_ and_ the ninjas…they're not part of this, I wouldn't want to put them in danger…"

"Oh?" Voldemort raised his eyebrows—(not that he had any…)—, "To tell you the truth, they _are_ part of this…"

Remus was confused at first, but then something hit him, and he gave a silent gasp. "Those ninjas that attacked us…you told them to, didn't you?" and he had once again found himself bubbling with anger.

"Glad you figured that out," said Voldemort lazily, and for the first time, he sighed. The Death Eaters looked at him in wonder. Voldemort stood up, walking slowly towards Lupin, who had stood, frozen, to the ground, and raised his wand.

Before the werewolf could brace himself from any more curses, the Dark Lord's wand swished, and Lupin immediately fell to the ground, as limp as a puppet.

"Take him back to his cell," Voldemort ordered as he pocketed his wand, "and do not give him anything except for water for the next five days."

Two of the Death Eaters got up and dragged Lupin's unconscious body away, but the rest of them remained where they were, apparently confused as to why Voldemort would suddenly knock their prisoner out.

As though he knew what they were thinking, Voldemort turned and surveyed them with pitiless eyes. "He's not ready to answer us yet," he simply said, glancing over to Lupin, who was being dragged to the door, "Yet no worries. We will, eventually, find a way to choke an answer out of him."

As the Death Eaters filed out of the room, Severus heaved a heavy sigh and followed them out the door. He had been staring silently at Lupin being tortured all through the meeting, and he knew he couldn't help, not when Voldemort was already suspecting him. Although Lupin was undoubtedly one of his internal enemy— even though he had done particularly nothing to harm him— Severus still felt a tinge of guilt as the image of Voldemort casting the Crucio spell on Lupin swam into his mind.

_Well, if that ungrateful James ever saw this_, he thought,_ he would probably be aiming a killing curse at me from Heaven right now_. A bitter smirk crossed his lips, and he walked steadily away from the other Death Eaters towards his room located on the next floor.

The man paced through the long and wide corridor decorated with some of Slytherin's most common designs—serpents. Thousands of them, all carved out of stone, slithered motionlessly across the ancient walls, onto the high ceiling above, and back down further and further away to the end of the hall. Severus studied the flow of the snakes and finally set his eyes onto the colorful glass window located right at the end of this vast hall.

The window was probably something you would see inside a magnificent church, where transparent colors of glass were put together, like a huge puzzle with saintly patterns, and framed onto the wall.

The pattern on this window though, was occupied by none other then Salazar Slytherin— probably the only person whom Voldemort had laid any respect on. And Salazar suddenly flashed, blinding Severus for a second, and then a huge crackling boom from the outside world rang out through the whole mansion.

It was as though Salazar had cast the thunder himself.

But Severus kept moving forward when another explosion of lighting stroked out through the glass planes of Slytherin, and this time, Severus had kept his eyes open, and the sudden burst of natural light illuminated the entire hall, along with the motionless serpents on the walls, and Salazar Slytherin himself. And the multicolored glass became suddenly bright; it looked as though, for a split second, that Salazar had came to life right before Severus's eyes.

_In that split second_, Severus had thought the person standing before him looked like a god.

When the following thunder sounded however, deafening Severus, and the light passing through Slytherin faded away, he narrowed his eyes, and spoke quietly, "You won't make me change my mind. Not even with your menacing features."

The hall was once again swallowed by darkness, with only a few sprinkles of weak light passing itself through the window, so that Severus could still see clearly nevertheless, and Salazar…did not look like a god to him anymore.

------------------ -------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------

I've decided to stop here, just to give you some emotional impact or something similar to that. To tell the truth, I've actually enjoyed writing this, especially the last part. All dark and saintly and stuff. My favorite theme on top of any other. :D

No, really, I think you should know more about who I am. I've tried so hard into getting the last part right, because I just LOVE these sort of European Medieval-religious scenes, it like, so holy, just perfect, and it makes you all excited whenever you think about it…well, calm, more like. Lol

And yes, the ancient Churches, Catholic or others, are just simply breath-taking. And for some strange reason, I really wanted JKR to write Snape walking through a medieval old church in the seventh book, at a rainy day, with soft light rays shining through broken windows and he himself sitting at the foot of a statue of a winged Saint, thinking about the death of Dumbledore. Man, that would fit so well with the mood, and I would simply love JKR for the rest of my life even if she made him die so randomly.

Ah well, I'll just accept the fact that she doesn't appreciate him as much as I do.

P.S when Snape said: "You won't make me change my mind…" he meant by his loyalties to Dumbledore. What, of course Slytherin would want such an efficient person to be on Voldemort's side…

P.SS For the next chapter, there would be a time jump, because I don't want to waste so many chapters writing about a week's events. So, Harry's adventure in the department of Mysteries will be, about two months earlier than usual, on April, I guess?

26/7/07

I read part of the book on the net, in which my friend had sent me. Ah well, I didn't read all of them, I just read the most important parts— to me that is— in the book, that means not including the seeking of the three Deathly Hallows, or whatever they are. Lol. I feel so guilty now.


	26. When misfortune turns into miracles

I'll be away soon. My family is arranging this stupid strip to Toronto, which I have no interest in— no offence to those who live in Toronto, though— and we'll be gone for 10 days. But I assure you that I'll be plotting…er, plots, for chapter 28 during the _oh-so_ eventful ride inside the tour bus. T-T

Everything I'm phrasing here seems to be rather negative. Ah well, perhaps it is caused by my bad mood:(

Oh and…Dobby :'(

It just, somehow, struck me. Just like that. Perhaps I'm just a stony-hearted bastard back then, when I read about his –SPOILER-, until I saw Neolannia's review, and thought that I should really have included Dobby's and Hedwig's name onto the deserve-a-hug list in which I've posted on chapter 26.

August 14th, 2007/8/14

I took my Provincial Exam today, for Math 10, and there's a question I didn't get. If you know the answer, please tell me! Since I couldn't type the whole equation out— simply because I can't— I'll try my best and describe it to you, and you can write it down or how ever you like.

Here it is:

"X _plus_ X-to-the-power-of-3/4, OVER the square-root-of-X." _(Actually, the sentence 'X to the power of 3/4' is in radical form, if you know what I mean, but I don't know how to say it lol.)_

I was told to simplify that expression. But seeing that I haven't seen a question like that before, all I could do was try my best, and I picked— it was multiple choice— the following answer for my, er, answer.

X to the power of 3/4.

Is it right? Hope it is. Or else I'm doomed.

Chapter 27: When misfortune turns into miracles

Orochimaru did not seem to have kept his promise; when he had finally figured out the secrets of the transmutation circle, April was already creeping up behind the three Sannins and Jiraiya and Tsunade had found this delay considerably frustrating.

"Look," Tsunade snapped, once she had successfully cornered Orochimaru right after dinner, when students were starting to file out from the Great Hall, "I know you would look as though you were ready to kill when we refuse to listen to you, but it's been two weeks already! _Two weeks_! And you said it would only take you one day to figure out the meaning of that stupid transmutation circle!"

"It's complicated," snarled Orochimaru, apparently disgusted by Tsunade's outburst, "It's harder than I've expected! And if you still continue to use that snappy mood against me, I might as well refuse to tell you the truth of that circle."

Tsunade hesitated. She had remembered, not long ago, that Orochimaru was positive about the circle having some connections with her homeland. And seriously enough, she would do anything to return to Konoha.

She glared at him, but said, "Fine then. So, you told Jiraiya and I to meet outside Slytherin's common room at ten?"

Orochimaru nodded, "The best for not to be overheard. We'll find a suitable place to discuss our plans afterwards."

And so at half past nine, when almost everyone was back inside their dormitories, Jiraiya woke up and crept out of the Gryffindor common room. Once he had approached the deserted hallway, he took out two objects from his pocket; a piece of parchment and his borrowed, battered school wand.

He held out his wand uncertainly and muttered, "_Lumos._"

Just as he had expected, nothing out of the ordinary happened; the hallway remained as dark as ever.

Jiraiya sighed. Magic was just too hard for him to handle, and there weren't any Jutsu that could produce light, and only light, either. At least, none that he'd known of.

"Let me do it."

A light not far from him flickered with blue, and Jiraiya almost jumped in surprise. He turned around, and saw Tsunade walking casually towards him, her barrowed wand emitting an unnatural glow.

"Still haven't mastered it yet?" Tsunade grinned, and Jiraiya flushed. "Shut up," he said, before turning away, "Anyways, let's go to the Slytherin common room— put your wand closer, will you?" For he had flipped open his blank piece of parchment and held it out to Tsunade.

"What's that?"

"A map I borrowed from Harry," explained Jiraiya, "It's quite handy. It shows the whole of Hogwarts and all the people within it, so you can easily avoid the ones you don't want to meet."

"Cool," beamed Tsunade, "What do you have to do, though?"

At this point, Jiraiya looked rather embarrassed, "Well…you have to use your wand and say the words, and I've tried, but for some reason, it just won't open up…"

Tsunade looked at him understandingly, and Jiraiya quickly pushed the Marauder's Map forward, "So you try, Tsunade! Put your wand tip onto the parchment and say, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'"

Tsunade stared at him, her eyebrows raised, "What? You want me to say_ that_?"

"Go ahead," said Jiraiya, trying not to laugh.

Tsunade pointed her wand on the parchment and muttered, doubtfully, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." And instantly, the map of Hogwarts blossomed in front of their eyes. Tsunade inhaled excitedly.

"Wow…" was all she could say.

Jiraiya held out the map and examined it. "Look, we'd better get going, Filch is only a floor on top of us."

And so they took off, walking as silently as possible, turning around corners and tiptoeing down staircases. Five minutes passed, and Jiraiya stopped suddenly, peering over the end of the corridor. Tsunade almost bumped into him.

"Why did you stop?" she whispered, but Jiraiya didn't reply. Instead he held out the Map to her.

"Look at this," he said. Tsunade's eyes fell upon the Map, and saw something rather unusual on it; a pack of dots, each representing a different person, were filing out slowly from a wall…_ a wall?_

"Wait…but how…?" Tsunade started, "Are those people? How could they— maybe they're ghosts…?"

"No, they can't be," replied Jiraiya, "Or else Harry would be dead. Look." He pointed at a dot appearing from the solid wall, which was marked 'Harry Potter', and Tsunade's eyes went wide.

"But then—" she jerked her head sideways, and her eyes landed on a wall somewhere far from her right. Perhaps she had heard soft footsteps, or perhaps the hurried rustling of robes, but either way, students in two to threes emerged from what looked like a simple wooden door curved right out of the wall, and Harry Potter was among them, walking silently, yet in a fast pace, with Ron and Hermione toward the Gryffindor tower.

"Damn," the two Sannins heard Harry whisper to his friends, "I shouldn't have lent the Map to Jiraiya today, now we could only trust our luck to not get noticed by Filch…"

"Well, perhaps Jiraiya needs the Map today as much as we do," said Hermione matter-of-factly, "It won't hurt lending it to him once in a while."

"Yeah, but, we'll be in big trouble if Umbridge saw us organizing an illegal organization," said Ron, looking nervous, "Next time lend the Map to Jiraiya whenever we are _not_ holding a meeting, mate," he added to Harry, "It won't be that hard, to tell the truth."

Harry rolled his eyes, and suddenly he stopped at his tracks.

"What's wrong?" asked Hermione fearfully, as though she had thought Umbridge had somehow appeared in front of them.

"No, it's…um…" stammered Harry, as he turned his head desperately around, apparently looking for someone among the scattered crowd of his DA members, "Well, I forgot to ask Cho…"

At his words, Ron grinned, and Hermione immediately made a turn to leave, pulling Ron with her. "Well then, we won't be disturbing you, Harry," she said, and smiled sweetly at him. He flushed, and could not hide the attempt to glare at her.

Harry took one last look at them walking away into the dark, then turned his head back to the opposite direction. _Okay…how should he phrase this…how should he ask Cho to go out with him this coming trip to Hogsmeade?_

His brain swam with never-ending answers as he sped through the hallway, between the small pack of students, looking for the Ravenclaw girl, when he stopped, yet again, in his tracks.

He was not looking at the back of Cho, for she was nowhere to be seen among the remaining students, but at two figures standing rather still like a statue around the corner, and he was_ sure_ they weren't members of Dumbledore's Army.

Harry whipped out his wand, and the others, who had seen him doing so, gasped in fear and quickly drew out theirs too.

"No," breathed Harry, "pocket your wands and run! It's dark out here, they won't be able to see who you—" but he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes and fired a Stunning Spell without thinking: the red jet flew across the corridor and it looked as though it would surely hit one of them when, to Harry's astonishment, they had avoided it as though the Spell was just a feeble paper airplane.

"_What the hell did you do that for?_" yelled a bemused voice, and Harry immediately knew that it belonged to Jiraiya. Sure enough, the two Sannins stepped out from the dark, with Jiraiya looking quite annoyed.

"Hey, how come you guys—?" started Harry, but Tsunade cut over him. "_We_ should be asking this question, Harry," she said, though her tone sounded amused rather than angry, "We saw you guys coming out of a wall on the Map, and heard you saying something about an illegal organization—"

"Look," said Harry quickly, "What you heard just now is what you heard just now, okay? Promise me not to tell_ anyone _about this— it's not like we refuse to let you know, but these meetings are confidential, and if Umbridge finds out—"

"He's worse than dead," nodded Fred, pointing his finger at Harry. Harry shoved his hand off.

"Right then," he said, "so will you promise? Please?"

Jiraiya was surprised at how doubtful Harry had sounded toward Tsunade and him, and could not help but express the coolness in his voice, "I assure you that we Shinobi aren't tattle-taling scum, so your secret is safe with us. But in return, I would want to know what you guys are up to—appearing behind a door which is not even marked upon the Map."

At this point Harry hesitated.

Finally, he said, "We're starting a rebellion for Dumbledore, for Hogwarts, against the Ministry— and Voldemort."

Fred and George piped up. "And we call ourselves, _'Dumbledore's Army'_." They said in union, and the Sannins grinned.

----------------------- -------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------- ---

"Look who's late?" muttered a voice in the dark as Jiraiya and Tsunade approached, panting, apparently out of breath for running all the way toward the Slytherin Common Room.

"Bumped into some interesting obstacles, that all."

"Right," Orochimaru looked at his watch, "Let's go down to the grounds, it's safer discussing the circle there, and Tsunade might as well take a look at it."

Both of them nodded, and the three of them disappeared in a puff of smoke, the sound unheard by others.

The next thing Jiraiya knew, howling cold wind was mercilessly piercing through his skin as he landed softly on the grass, outside the castle. He saw his companions appeared beside him, and he called, "Oi! Next time tell me to wear a jacket first, Orochimaru!"

But Orochimaru didn't seem to have heard him. He motioned the other two to follow him through the forest and a few minutes later, they had arrived at the familiar clearing, where the transmutation circle was still barely visible— despite the darkness.

Tsunade edged forward, her heart thumping against her ribs, as she stared down at the symbols, transfixed.

"Right then," Orochimaru started as he knelt down beside the circle. The other two followed suit, so once they were seated, it gave passersby an impression of a Bonfire Meeting, except that there weren't any bonfires in the middle.

"So, how much _secrets_ have you discovered?" asked Jiraiya, nodding towards the book Orochimaru was holding, in which he had fished out from his bag just now.

"Depends on how you put it," said Orochimaru, "To me, the information I have right now is all I needed to know." And he flipped open to the page he had marked, and from inside his pocket, he took out a notebook; it contained the translations of the Sealing Arts Jiraiya had read out from the transmutation circle.

"I've spent a night inside the Common Room translating these," he said, holding up the note book, "and my guess was correct: it was a Teleportation Jutsu—テレポートの術— you get the idea. But this Jutsu isn't like the one we often use. It is meant for a_ really _wide-ranged distance, and it requires a hell lot of chakra, that's why almost nobody in our Shinobi world uses this, seeing that the whole landscape isn't huge."

"So what to say is," Tsunade tapped on her chin, "whoever drew this is trying to enter Hogwarts from somewhere very far away? But what about the Alchemic circle?"

Orochimaru looked up at her.

"The Transmutation Circle of Time Alternation," he said. Tsunade simply stared at him.

"…What?"

"The Transmutation Circle of Time Alternation," Orochimaru repeated, his eyes locked on hers as he held up the page. But when Tsunade squint her eyes to take a good look at the circle printed on the page, she frowned, "Yeah…but then, this is a Circle that steadies one's soul in their own body, the description says so…what does it have to do…?"

Orochimaru placed a finger on the page, to mark it, and then flipped back a few pages. There, printed in large Japanese fonts, were the words:

_Section 56: The 24__th__ Law: Transmutation Circles of Time Alternation_

"Actually, I meant to say _one _of the Transmutation Circles of Time Alternation," said Orochimaru, pointing towards the Circle on the ground, "Because _this _one, is crammed into Section 56, which means this Circle has everything to do with time traveling…"

Tsunade jumped up at the words 'time traveling' and gasped, yet the other two showed less enthusiasm.

"_Yes we know_, Tsunade," said Jiraiya, rolling his eyes, "We've heard enough of your whimpering already. But even if it can travel through time, I doubt that we can make it work. I mean, there're too much complicated magic in between."

"…Perhaps," muttered Tsunade as she sat back down, looking rather disappointed.

"Let's put this matter aside for a moment," said Orochimaru firmly, glancing towards Tsunade, "And concentrate on Lupin's case instead. As I was saying, this Circle has everything to do with time traveling. And if my guess is correct, time traveling is a _very_ dangerous journey, and so, a person has to rely on this Circle in order to successfully travel from one dimension to another, or else your soul— or spirit— may be torn into pieces through the process. Like Hermione had said: Time is a tricky business."

"Though it sounds kind of bizarre, it still makes sense to me," Jiraiya nodded, "Consider if something has gone wrong and your soul is stuck between nothingness…creepy."

"Not to me, though," Tsunade said, and Jiraiya stared at her. "Listen to this," she explained, "if those people— Death Eaters— have indeed traveled through time to get here…I mean, why _would _they? They live in Britain! They live right here!"

"You forgot about the Shinobi from the Rain Village," Orochimaru pointed out.

"So?"

"Those Shinobi, I think they're with Voldemort. He must have hired them or something but I'm quite certain that it was him who sent them to come and get you! And if they_ are_ with Voldemort, there could be a chance that a secret meeting was held over there— in _our_ homeland— and the Death Eaters came back by using that Transmutation Circle!"

"You're blind-guessing, Orochimaru," Tsunade said, shaking her head, "There're too little clues to prove that you're right."

"But until then, we don't seem to have any other theories supporting this," said Jiraiya, pointing grimly at the Circle.

Suddenly Orochimaru stood up and started to head back towards the Castle.

"Oi! Where are you going?" Jiraiya called after him. "You know what?" Orochimaru replied, turning back to face him, "I think I'm going to experiment on the Circle."

"You've got to be kidding me!" shouted Tsunade, apparently outraged, "experiment on_ that_? It's too dangerous! And we don't know anything about Alchemy, to be honest."

"Look, I know what I'm doing," snapped Orochimaru, "If you're such a gut-less person, I'll just do it on my own, and stay out of the way."

"Orochimaru!" Tsunade shouted out his name again, this time desperately, but Jiraiya cut in, "hey Orochi! Even if you're _dying_ to try that Circle out, there's still no suitable place for you to do so."

And Orochimaru turned, raising his eyebrows, "Then I'll just find one." He turned around to leave, but Jiraiya caught up on him, "Listen, if you really want to do this, I recommend a place for you, and you won't be alone. We're coming with you."

At this point, Orochimaru didn't speak for a while, but later on he said, "…Fine then. Thanks."

Jiraiya grinned, looking back at Tsunade, and though she seemed to disagree, she still followed her comrades up the hill, back into the castle, and didn't protest.

------------------------ ------------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------------

It was already midnight, yet the person sitting alone in the park did not move. He had his head bent low, leaning it heavily on his lap, and his hands were over his head, giving you a precise impression of a man that so often lacked of sleep.

A party of noisy people passed by, yet the man didn't stir. Then a boy, out of nowhere, came bounding up to him, a lit lantern swaying on a stick in his hand.

"Mister," the boy called in a clear, childish voice. When the man didn't respond, his poked his arm, and held the lantern in front of him, as though wanting to wake the man up with the soft rays of light.

"Mister!" The boy said again, and this time, Sarutobi glanced up with a dazed, tired look in his eyes. When he spotted the little boy standing in front of him, Sarutobi blinked.

"Hello there, may I help you?" he asked, but the boy said, "Mister, why aren't you with us out there? Celebrate with us mister! Don't just sit there!"

Sarutobi smiled a tired smile, and ruffled the boy's hair. "You go on," he told him, glancing at the festival not too far away, where specks of light and colorful Japanese-styled flags fluttered in the breeze, "Don't worry about me, I'll come and join you later, okay?"

Sarutobi knew he had lied, but the boy gave a toothy grin and ran off to join his family, whom were all wearing their beautifully decorated kimonos.

The would-be Hokage stood up silently and left. Nobody noticed.

He arrived at his apartment and headed slowly towards his lab, where he was sure that it was the place where the Sannins had disappeared. Sarutobi stared at the empty cauldron on the floor, unmoving, and he just stood there gazing at it for who knows how long.

"Just keep searching, Sarutobi," he thought to himself, "They are bound to reappear! I'm sure of it! We're talking about the Sannins here, Sarutobi,_ your _students!"

Yet he still slumped down against the wall, defeated.

As his spiritless eyes darted around the room, something hidden among the bookshelves shimmered, and Sarutobi walked across the room, squinting at it.

_My crystal ball._

Sarutobi frowned in wonder, thinking when was the time he had last used it. He approached the shelf, picked it up, blew off the thin layer of dust and examined it.

That was when it happened: Sarutobi stared at it, unbelievably, at the cloudy sphere as the surface within swirled and shimmered, and revealed behind the mysterious smoke were what seemed to be curtains, hundreds and hundreds of them, each with their own unique design.

Sarutobi saw so shocked that he almost dropped the crystal ball. Holding it tight with numb fingers, he had noticed that the mysterious scene the crystal ball was showing to him belonged to some sort of...room. He frowned, yet again, and tried to peer into the sphere as much as he could.

Yes, it was definitely a room, and he seemed to be staring at a ceiling. A very high ceiling, as a matter of fact. And the dark, thick curtains were hung and dangled from it, blocking out the light streaming from outside so that they gave a soft red glow.

"But where_ is _this place?" Sarutobi said to no one in particular as his eyes remained curiously glued to the sphere…and a high pitched scream followed his question.

But it was not Sarutobi who screamed. He jumped back and toppled over, clearly shocked that the crystal ball could actually produce a sound like that, and to his bigger surprise, the scene inside the sphere was instantly blocked so that Sarutobi could not see a thing anymore.

Feeling extremely bewildered, he staggered up to his feet and gazed at it. The thing— or rather, things— that were blocking his view had turned out to be faces, unfamiliar, strange, faces. And the people inside blinked with amazement, craning their heads from left to right as though looking for something on the other side that might have just disappeared.

"_Is he there?_"

"_What did you see? Why did Tomas screamed?_"

"_He said he saw something inside this crystal ball!_"

"_What? You've got to be kidding!_"

"_Settle down, class, settle down!_"

A babble of language were issuing from the crystal ball as well, and, bless him…Sarutobi couldn't understand a word they said.

"Wait— what-what are you?" Sarutobi shouted, leaning fearfully against a wall. Although he was an Elite, the sudden appearance of a bunch of strangers inside the crystal ball were still too much for him to take, "What is this? Some kind of joke? Who are you?"

But the people from the other side yelled more frantically still.

"_Oh-oh! I saw him! I saw him!_"

"_What? Where?_"

"_He's trying to say something—_"

"_Professor Trelawney!_"

"_Class, class! Stand back! It-it must be an omen of approaching Danger!_"

"…_there she goes again—_"

"_Dumbledore! We have to get Professor Dumbledore, Professor Trelawney!_"

"_Yes…Yes! Dumbledore! He would have to be informed by this! Colin, off you go._"

---------------------- ------------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------- ----

"Handing water to the werewolf…ordering me to do dirty work…" a series of rasped muttering could be audible through the cell and Lupin sensed that someone was coming down the stairs.

No doubt, Fenrir Greyback had come to deliver his flask of water, and, no doubt, he was being extremely frustrated by this.

The metal bars in front of Lupin clanged, and it opened with a rusty creak. And Greyback stood there with a flask in his dirty, clawed hand. Lupin could not help but express an amused smirk. "Hello, Greyback," he said, "How nice of you to come and deliver my water."

Greyback's expression was murderous, but Lupin knew he was safe: Snape had come down yesterday to tell him that the Dark Lord had ordered every one of his followers not to cause him any damage, physically_ and_ mentally. Lupin's uneasiness had eased a bit since then.

Greyback growled, and flung the water flask toward him, in which Lupin caught it. "I 'ould have ripped your neck open if not for the Dark Lord's hideous orders," Fenrir's eyes shown as he bared his pointed teeth savagely, "You jus' watch, Lupin, by the time he has decided to depose of you, I'll be the first to 'elp."

With that he turned around and clambered up the stairs. As the doors slammed shut, Lupin was once again surrounded by darkness, with only a tiny ray of light shining through the metal bar windows.

------------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------

McGonagall walked with a fast pace through the halls of Hogwarts, looking both happy and worried. She turned a corner and approached the Great Hall, where students were seated neatly at the House tables, enjoying their lunch.

The Deputy Headmistress scanned the Great Hall with sharp, hawk-like eyes, trying desperately to find the three ninjas.

"Oi, look," Fred said, as he spotted McGonagall at the entrance of the Hall, "What's McGonagall doing there, looking all stern and stuff?"

"To me, she looks happy," George said, waving an airy hand, "Like Snape, she keeps her emotions inside her really well, though, so being happy or sad doesn't affect her a lot."

"Nah, I think she looks desperate," Jiraiya said, as he stole a chicken leg from George's plate.

"Jiraiya!" suddenly McGonagall's voice barked through the hall, and Jiraiya was so surprised at the mention of his name that he squeaked and nearly dropped the chicken leg.

"Wh-what did I do?" the Shinobi glanced fearfully towards the Deputy Headmistress. "Oh, she must be accusing you for_ stealing_," said George with an evil smile as he snatched his chicken leg away from Jiraiya.

McGonagall approached through the crowd of curious people. "Jiraiya," she nodded towards him, "may I ask where your teammates are?"

Looking confused, Jiraiya pointed towards the far end of the Great Hall, where Tsunade and Orochimaru were seated along with Harry and Ron. Yet McGonagall could barely see them, for the students from each table had started to unseat themselves and file out of the Great Hall.

Frowning, McGonagall turned to face Jiraiya again. "Jiraiya, there is something the three of you will have to see," she pointed out, "We suspect it has something to do with your homeland."

"Huh?" Jiraiya's eyes widened, "What has something to do with our homeland…?"

"You'll see," McGonagall assured him, "Now, I want you to go up straight to the Divination tower, there you'll probably see what I mean."

Jiraiya glanced over at Fred and George, and both of them shrugged. "Okay then…" Jiraiya said, looking uncertain, "Tsunade and Orochimaru are coming to, aren't they?"

"Yes they are. But you go first, or else he might vanish if we're too late."

"Who might vanish…?" But McGonagall had already shooed him out of the Great Hall before Jiraiya could ask anymore questions.

Bewildered, Jiraiya made his way towards the top-most tower of the castle, where the only available entrance was up a 10 feet ladder.

The classroom was empty, and the smell and the suffocating heat were considerably unbearable. Jiraiya surveyed around the small room and saw something other than draping curtains and bottles of sherry: a glowing crystal ball.

Frowning, he approached it, thinking whether or not McGonagall had intended him to see_ this_. Jiraiya leaned closer cautiously and peered. The scene projecting from inside the crystal ball made him scream the loudest in his life.

The trap door flew open, and the other two Sannins sped across the room and stopped dead in front of the crystal ball.

"_Sensei!_"

Tsunade covered her mouth in shock as though Sarutobi didn't look like a human to her at all, tears swelling up in her eyes. Orochimaru simply stared down at the sphere.

"_Tsu-Tsunade?_" the slightly altered image of Sarutobi stared back up at them with his mouth hanging slightly open, "_Jiraiya? Orochimaru? How…?_"

"_SENSEI!_" As if the truth had finally struck her, Tsunade screamed out the words and gripped the crystal ball so tightly that it was quite a miracle it didn't crack, "_Oh Sensei! We miss you so much! We really do! It was an accident! It was—_"

"_Tsunade!_" Sarutobi shouted over his overwhelmed pupil with a look that was mixed between excitement, disbelief, and concern, "_Where were you three? I've been looking for you all over Konoha! The Hokage even tried to find you in the other Hidden Villages!_"

"_We are so sorry!_" Tsunade wailed as tears streaked down her cheeks, "_I miss you so much! We-we are sorry for playing with your stuff! Something had gone w-wrong and we somehow arrived_ h-here—"

Sarutobi looked terrified. "_What do you mean 'here'? Where are you? Are you all okay? Please_— where in the world are you?!"

"_It's— well…it's a long story anyways…you wouldn't believe it even if we tell you,_" Jiraiya smiled nervously and shrugged, then he quickly added, "_It's okay though! We're quite all right over here! You don't have to worry about us!_"

"_Of course I have to be worried about you!_" for the first time, Sarutobi looked angry, and Jiraiya seemed to shrink a bit, "_Look, Jiraiya. You'd better tell me where you guys are, this is extremely serious!_"

"_Okay, okay!_" Jiraiya held up his hands defensively, "_Well, we arrived at this strange place…well, you won't believe this, but we've arrived at a place where magic actually _exists"

It took quite some time for Sarutobi to absorb this little piece of information before he said, "_…What?_"

"_Told you. You won't believe it,_" Orochimaru smirked, "_But let's face the fact, Sensei. Magic does exist, and so does western dragons and Alchemy."_

"_But then,_" Sarutobi shook his head, "_…Alchemy!_ How come?_ People had said Alchemy was science, but it was only some kind of witchcrafted-myth 'invented' by some insensible scientists…and magic! It has no logic!"_

"_It doesn't matter. The point is that it_ exists._ We saw it with or own eyes," _Orochimaru was growing a little impatient, "_Look, I know this would strike you senseless, but then I have to tell you this: You might think that we're just a few seas away from the East, since this is where magic is said to exist, but it's not that simple. Tsunade and confirmed that you and I, are actually thirty-three years apart from each other— yes, thirty-three years. There was a time jump._" Orochimaru nodded firmly, for Sarutobi had tried to argue back.

Tsunade's eyes swelled and cried even harder. Jiraiya had no choice but to pat her gently on the back. "_Sensei,_" Jiraiya glanced gravely into his teacher's eyes, "_I know this is really disappointing and it looks as though we won't see each other again…but then, we're working on it! I mean, Orochimaru has found this Alchemic Transmutation Circle combined with our Sealing Art— yes, I know— and he suspected that Shinobi of our kind were actually teleporting between this dimension and ours!_"

Sarutobi looked shocked, "_What—? You mean to say—_"

"—_That we aren't the only outsiders here. Yes we aren't," nodded Orochimaru, "In fact, some of them— and I meant to say Rain Ninjas— tried to ambush Tsunade once, along with other wizards. But she beat them all anyways. _"

Yet Sarutobi still looked shocked, "Rain Ninjas? If you said that they are the ones using that Circle, it sounds as though they knew that this— this— magic world exists all along…"

"_That's precisely my point,_" Orochimaru said, then gave a little smile, "_So I was thinking: If they can use it, why can't we? It'll be perfect; If we've managed to figure out how to make the Circle work again, or simply reverse it, we'll be able to get back home, and meanwhile, accomplish another mission as well._"

"_What mission?_" asked Sarutobi, looking confused.

Tsunade whipped her face with her sleeve. "_Well, there's this friend we have to save, Sensei, before we could do anything else,_" she explained, her voice still shaking slightly, "_That person— Remus Lupin— saved my life once, you see. And now, he is held hostage by this Dark Wizard called Voldemort— everyone in the Wizarding World fears him, to tell the truth— I really want to go and rescue him, but then…the problem is, we don't know where he is…_"

"_And we think that the Transmutation Circle has a lot to do with this as well,_" Jiraiya said, grateful that Tsunade had finally stopped crying, "_If we're successful in 'reversing' it, perhaps we can figure out its _original location_ and find out where Lupin is!_"

But Sarutobi had smiled at the word 'reversing', much to the Sannin's surprise. The future Hokage knew that he still had millions of questions to ask his students, but looking into their desperate faces, he couldn't help but wait and leave all the questions until later. Now, he had more important things to tell them.

"_I think I have a solution to that,_" he said, and the Sannins were rather taken-aback by this.

Sarutobi turned to face Orochimaru, "_Didn't I tell you, once, that Sealing Arts could be reversed?_" and Orochimaru just stood rooted to the spot, until a soft 'oh!' escaped his lips. When Sarutobi laughed at his awkwardness, Orochimaru flushed and muttered, "_Then_ _I've forgotten, so what?_"

"_Ah, it doesn't matter,_" said Sarutobi, still chuckling, "_As I was saying, Sealing Arts could be reversed. If you tell me the descriptions of all the symbols in that Sealing Art, I might be able to figure out its origin._"

Orochimaru was at the verge of taking out his notebook when he stopped, sounding doubtful, "_But it's combined with that Transmutation Circle, will your calculation for the Sealing Art still be accurate?_"

"_It won't hurt if we give it a try,_" Sarutobi shrugged, "_Now, I need to know _more_ than the descriptions, Orochimaru. If you guys can manage, I also need to know the time and the area surrounding it, landscape and such…"_

"_That's not a problem,_" Tsunade shook her head firmly, desperate for Sarutobi to continue, "_Ask away, Sensei! We'll tell you everything you need to know!_"

It was just after noon and the cheerful rays of the sun were streaming onto the Grounds of Hogwarts, and the depression that lingered after a night of heavy rain seemed to have lift. Carried away by the wind, it left for good, and Tsunade had never felt so happy in her life.

---------------- ----------------------- -------------------------- ----------------------- ------------

Took me 19 pages this time…wow. That ought to keep you quiet for some time XD Of course, don't stop reviewing lol.

Btw, check out this person's awesome artworks— _and_ her taste in music:

(Delete all spaces.)

http :// ashen -ray. com/

Don't forget to press the play button on the Music section. To tell the truth, I listened to this when I wrote this chapter. Oh and her web comic: Blackbird! Don't forget about her web comic:D

Shilin Huang, she is called. Her works inspired me to practice more on CGing. Because her style is my favorite of all.


	27. For all the right Reasons

4/9/07

I'm really looking forward to this chapter because, after all the boring talks and evaluations, we've finally came to the part where the real action takes place! Woo! Lol

School is going to start, and I think I'll throw an 'I-Hate-School' club. Anyone care to join:)

Ahem. Anyways…did you visit her page like I've asked you to? (You know what I'm talking about.)

9/10/07

Scholl has started on the 4th. It wasn't so bad, I have to admit, better than grade 9. Oh by the way I went into Byng Arts Mini School, so I guess this is an improvement. :D At least I will be taking same classes with my Byng Arts friends instead of regular students. Trust me; you just want to stay away from some of the regulars.

Chapter 28: For all the right reasons

They had decided to set out right away.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Tsunade as she fastened her pouch onto her waist, "About not telling McGonagall that we're leaving."

"Are you crazy?" snorted Jiraiya, "She'll go all nuts if we told her. After all this is a 'dangerous' mission."

"We've faced a lot more than this," muttered Tsunade, but decided to leave the argument at that.

Orochimaru glanced around the dormitory. "Got everything yet? We'd better get going now, the soon the better." And just to make sure, he checked his bag one more time; There was the Alchemy library book he had stolen some time ago, along with a bottle of water, extra herbs for healing, brush, ink, a whole bunch of scrolls, and for some reason, a compass.

Jiraiya peered over Orochimaru's shoulder. "Is there any reason as to why you would bring a compass? We know exactly where we are going"

Orochimaru shrugged, "Just in case."

Tsunade walked to the window and pulled the curtains aside. She peered down at the darkening scenery and smiled; no one seemed to be lurking outside on the Grounds except for Hagrid, who was heating a warm firelight by his little hut, with Fang barking merrily at his side. All was perfect.

Nodding firmly, Tsunade pulled back the curtains and turned back to her comrades. "So, Are you all ready to go?" she asked as she pulled out a wizard traveling cloak from her pouch and wrapped it around herself.

"Where do you get that?" Jiraiya pointed in astonishment, "I don't remember McGonagall lending us any except for our daily uniforms."

"Borrowed it from Hermione," Tsunade smiled, "She has some extras. Mrs. Weasely had bought them for her not knowing she had one already. Here— you guys can have these."

She threw two extra cloaks toward Jiraiya and he caught it with one hand. "But it's April! It'll be really warm outside."

"We can still use these to disguise ourselves," Orochimaru pointed out, "We'll look more like wizards."

Jiraiya nodded in agreement as he threw the cloak around himself as well, and pulled the hood over his head.

"Right then," Orochimaru made his way to the portrait hole and climbed out of it, "We won't go through the main door, it'll just attract more attention. Disappear through it instead, and meet me at the Transmutation Circle. Don't let Hagrid see you though."

With that, he did the all too familiar hand signs and disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Jiraiya and Tsunade behind.

"Pssh. He sure is fast," Jiraiya smirked, "Tsunade, we'd better get going too."

"…It's really strange…"

"What?"

"I said it's really strange…" replied Tsunade, but she was smiling, "To find out that we are united with Sensei again when all hope seems lost…I can't believe that we've actually found a way to go home…"

"Don't talk like that, Tsunade," Jiraiya waved an airy hand, "You see, I don't believe in hopelessness."

Tsunade stared at him, then she sighed, "Sometimes I really wondered why you could still be so cheerful, however bad the situation was. Perhaps it has something to do with what you believe in."

Jiraiya grinned as he turned away and walked towards the portrait hole, "Because this is what I say to myself: there is always hope inside ourselves, though we don't know it. And if, just say, we are struggling from the edge of Death, and all hope seemed lost…then I'll tell myself that, if Hope didn't come to me today and I died, then it will come to me on my next life."

Jiraiya chuckled at his own seriousness and left the room. After a few seconds, when Tsunade had finally felt her legs again, she followed him out, thinking that Jiraiya was indeed, a brilliant person.

The two of them walked fast, yet silently, so as to keep Filch out of the way. When they turned a corner, Jiraiya suddenly gasped in surprise and bumped into someone running directly at them.

"What the—"

"Oh, Harry! It's you! What are you doing—"

But Harry wasn't listening. He took a fearful glance over his shoulder, grasped Tsunade's arm and whispered furiously, "Look, you guys have to go the other way! Umbridge is coming! She'll think you're behind this as well!"

"Behind what? What happened?" Both Sannins's eyes were wide in disbelief.

"Umbridge knows where our meeting's held! We've just made a run for it. Just go! Now!" and he pushed both of them away from the direction he had came from. Jiraiya and Tsunade had no further need to ask questions; they turned and sped through the vast hallway, accompanied by Harry, and when they've ran pass an empty classroom, Harry turned and slipped inside it.

Jiraiya turned towards him, feeling doubtful, but Harry waved a hand at them and told them to go on.

"You think he'll be okay?" whispered Tsunade as they ran as fast as they could toward the main door.

"Hah. It'll probably take Umbridge a decade to get a hold of him," smirked Jiraiya, "But even if she did, Harry will still worm his way out."

The sun had descended fast. When they had arrived at the edge of the forest, it was already hidden behind the far mountains so that only a brilliant line of golden red was visible through the mountain edges.

A few crows fluttered above the Sannins as they made their leave.

Orochimaru stood on top of the Circle, and the other two followed suit. He looked around at them. "I want you guys to be really cautious about this," he announced, "We wouldn't want this to fail, would we?"

Jiraiya and Tsunade shook their heads. Orochimaru opened his pouch and took out his brush, dipped in ink. He then drew all sorts of symbols and words from his palm all the way up to his lower arm.

"Copy what I've drawn," said Orochimaru, handing the brush to Jiraiya, "Sensei said it's necessary."

"Okay…what now?" Tsunade, who was the last to finish, handed the brush back to Orochimaru.

"Do the same process as the Summoning Jutsu," Orochimaru said, biting his finger with his teeth so that a tickle of blood flowed out, "And plunge you hand onto a surface that is NOT scribbled with symbols. As we can see, there are four, which mean that four Rain Ninjas were used to operate this. Go ahead and pick one."

And the three of them shifted places, each of them holding their hand out in ready. Jiraiya gulped nervously.

"This is it," called Orochimaru. Perhaps due to the tension in this, he was speaking a little louder than before, "Remember! DO NOT release your hand from the ground under any circumstances, because if you do, then that will be the time when all things go wrong!"

"Right!" nodded Jiraiya and Tsunade. Orochimaru continued, "On the count of three, plunge your hand down, and keep still when I say the incantation."

"One— two— THREE!"

Tsunade's inked hand landed firmly onto the dirt, and immediately the whole Circle exploded with blinding red light. Her hair was flying all over the place as though a huge gust of wind had erupted from beneath the symbols, and Tsunade had to narrow her eyes as the swirling air hit her full in the face. She could hear Jiraiya gasped in surprise.

Beside Jiraiya, Orochimaru told himself to calm down as the light pierced through the air around him. _This is it, the incantation. I didn't memorize this whole bunch of words for nothing you know_, Orochimaru thought desperately to succeed, and he opened his mouth:

"_Kemono no Kotsu— Sentou— Kenshou— Koutetsu no Sharin! Musei kiso kuze kaze! Teishi kiso kuze sora! JIKUU NO SEN!_"

The ground seemed to shake as Orochimaru finished his incantation. Then the blazing red light swirled furiously around and engulfed all three of the Sannins into nothingness.

------------------ --------------------- -------------------- ------------------- --------------- -------

"Sir!"

"Sir! Wait!"

The Jonin turned around and noticed a Shinobi of a lower rank running towards him, undoubtly out of breath.

"Sir!"

"Yes?" he asked, thinking that whatever had happened must have been crucial, or else the person standing before him wouldn't look so frightened.

"The Circle, sir," panted the Shinobi, "Kurotake and I saw it activated not too far away from our woods…"

The Jonin's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "That's funny. I thought those cloaked weirdoes won't be coming until April."

"They are, sir," the Shinobi shook his head as sweat slide down his forehead, "Because the arrivals are not them. It's— it's the _Sannins_, sir."

It took quite some time for the Jonin to sink this in. His face turned whiter and whiter with every passing second, and he seemed to have gathered up all of his remaining chakra to ask this question, "The…Sannins?"

"Yes, sir…the Sannins," the Shinobi nodded slowly as he stared at the Jonin's ghostly figure in wonder; the situation was bad, all right, but was it needed to pull such a face?

"You all right sir?" he asked uncertainly. The Jonin sighed frustratingly, "Yes…yes, I'm all right. Listen, don't tell anyone else about this, understood?"

"…If you say so, sir…but what about the Sannins?"

"Just let them be," replied the Jonin absentmindedly, "Their destination isn't here anyways, so it doesn't matter. If people asked how they've managed to get in to those weirdoes head quarters, tell them nothing about it."

The Shinobi bowed, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Jonin stayed there for a while, and he too, turned and continued down the hall.

Tsunade looked around. "But this is…" she breathed.

"Yes, Amagakure," finished Orochimaru. Jiraiya let out a whistle, "So much fog around here. It seems as though this is the Village of the Mist!"

"Rain is water, mist is still water," Tsunade shrugged, "I just hope no one saw us."

"Look, we'd better hurry up," Orochimaru urged as he resumed his position on the Circle, "I believe our next stop will be Voldemort's hideout."

"Man, this is getting more and more exciting," grinned Jiraiya, taking the brush from Orochimaru and redrawing the symbols on his arm, "Can't wait to beat the crap out of those Death Eaters."

"Don't forget our main purpose is to rescue Lupin, though," added Orochimaru, "After that, you can do whatever you want."

As the red lights shown through the air once again, Tsunade looked back as they disappeared through time; it felt very strange to know that they were, literally, only some miles away from their very homeland, and that it would only take half a day to arrive there and reunite with Sarutobi again. But she knew she couldn't be selfish, and shook her head.

The mission they were accomplishing was more important. Everything else would have to wait.

--------------------- ---------------------- ------------------------------------ ----------------------

A crow nearby fluttered, as though shock, when someone Apparated out of nowhere, just twenty yards away from it. The crow gave a sad, wailing sound and took flight towards the blazing setting sun.

Snape watched until it vanished from the world and continued his way down the hills mounted with all sorts of Muggle-made junk: wine bottles, broken television sets, cans, pieces of metal…

Although he had lived in Spinner's End for eleven years, give or take a few, Severus still couldn't seem to stand this appalling sight. Muggles had called Spinner's End a 'junkyard', and it sure was ironic: when he was only a few years old, Severus had thought the name Spinner's End sounded nice, even beautiful.

But it was a junkyard nevertheless.

A suffocating feeling tightened around him as he opened the door with his wand, careful enough not to touch the rusting doorknob. As the door creaked open, a tiny moth fluttered out from inside the room and out of sight.

Snape duck his head and entered the small, dark house that contained only a few fragile furnitures, and with a wave of his wand, the room was lit by a glowing ball of light floating peacefully in midair.

Something reflected back at Severus and he turned, spotting a decade-old picture frame coated with a good amount of dust. Severus picked it up, wiped most of dust away and stared at the contents: it was a picture of his mother, much to his surprise. Why would a picture of her still be standing among the shadows when his father had made sure every picture that showed her in it were chucked unceremoniously away once he had discovered that his wife was actually a freaking witch?

Severus sighed. It was somehow a relief to find a small piece of his mother still hanging around the house. Although people had seen her, always, as an angry and cold-hearted looking woman, Severus knew that she was a good mother.

Stowing the picture inside his cloak, Snape knelt down and pulled, hard, on a dust coated handle of a drawer. Just as he had expected, it would not open. His father had once told him not to open this or else the consequences would be brutal.

The man took out his wand and pointed it at the key hole. Something clicked, and the drawer slide open easily by itself.

Peering curiously inside, Severus was somehow not at all surprised to see the object lying in such a worn-out drawer. He had seen this object before, once on the rotten streets inhabited by their own rotten-Muggle people who weren't keen enough to find a job and go to work.

He weighted the heavy thing in his hand and hid it in his robes. If the time was right, this might come in handy, even though he had little idea of how to use it…

----------------------- ------------------- ------------------------------- ----------------------------

Right at that moment, Orochimaru had known they had done it: they had arrived at Voldemort's hideout as the blazing red lights of the Transmutation Circle died around them, enabling the darkness to invade once more.

"Yeah, this must be it," Jiraiya huffed, straightening up to take a good look at the looming tower in front of them, "Mind you, even the bats have confirmed it." He pointed at the top of the tower in which ominous bats were fluttering tirelessly around. They had undoubtedly given an impression of an out-dated horror film.

"Right then, let's go," Tsunade started to head towards the tower. "Don't we need a plan or something?" panted Jiraiya as he tried to keep up.

"I don't think we do…no one can kill us when we're sticking together…"

"Well, at least think bout what would happen if we get separated!"

"They're just some wussy Death Eaters!"

"There's still Voldemort, baka!"

Orochimaru knew what was coming. Before Tsunade could even draw her fisted-arm back to punch Jiraiya, Orochimaru had already managed to get a hold of her arm, yelling frustratingly at Tsunade to control her temper, and at Jiraiya for learning better manners.

"Look, I hate to say this, but I agree with Jiraiya!" yelled Orochimaru as Tsunade jerked herself away from him, glaring as she did so, "We need a plan. That tower is full of dark magic, it's dangerous, and we won't know what will happen in there"

Tsunade hesitated, then grunted. Orochimaru took that as a yes.

"I'll bet everything that there will be guards behind those doors," Orochimaru went on, pointing at the gate-like entrance at the bottom of the tower, "If we could just distract them…"

"We could use doppelgangers," suggested Jiraiya, sounding quite enthusiastic despite the fact that he wasn't considered as a pro when it came to doppelgangers, "Turn our copies into various Death Eaters and march up to them and say whatever we can to get them out of the way for a while."

But Tsunade seemed to hugely disagree. "Why don't you use your head, Jiraiya?" she snapped, "Who do you expect to turn into? If you need any further reminding, we don't know how they look like—_ and I'll bet you everything that you've already forgotten the appearance of some of the unmasked Death Eaters that attacked you a few months ago_." For Jiraiya had made a strong attempt to protest.

He considered this for a moment, then snorted, "Fine then. You have a point. But if we can't use Doppelgangers, what can we do?"

"Seems that using Genjutsu's the only way," said Orochimaru, scratching his chin thoughtfully, "We wouldn't want to make a racket, so I'd say something simple would do."

Tsunade nodded, "Right then. So who'll be the caster?"

"I will," Orochimaru replied automatically, and smirked, "No offense, but it seems that I still have the best control over Genjutsus."

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes and pulled a face, "So, you take it that Tsunade and I are going to leave you behind to deal with those wussy Death Eaters? Fine with me. I'm just surprised that you can actually leave your pride behind and let us handle all the aces!"

Sensing that another fight was going to start again, Tsunade quickly stepped between the two of them and announced loudly, "Ah, guys, since all things are correctly set up, shouldn't we get going now?"

"We still need to think about what to do once we got separated," Jiraiya pointed out in an unfriendly voice as he tried desperately to glare over Tsunade's shoulder and into Orochimaru's eyes.

"Oh you don't have to worry about me," said Orochimaru dangerously, "Do you really think I will get lost in a castle such as this? Pathetic. And trust me, the first one who gets captured by those Death Eaters will probably be you."

Tsunade immediately snatched the Kunai away from Jiraiya before he could even get it out from his pouch. "Cut it out!" she snapped, and felt a tinge of desire to laugh, for Orochimaru could have said this very sentence just a few moments ago, "Look, Lupin's still in there, alive or dead we yet not know—" a knot seemed to have tightened inside her, but Tsunade had managed to continue, "And meanwhile, we are out here arguing about something useless! Come on, we have to get going now!"

Fortunately, Orochimaru nodded and seemed to have dropped the argument aside, while Jiraiya gathered himself up and lead the team up the small hill, where on top of it stood the darkened mansion.

The mansion loomed closer at every step they took, and Jiraiya knew it, he and his teammates were standing right in front of the vast, ivy-nested door. The door was made of heavy, worn out wood, with metals and ivy branches decorating the surface. There were two rusty-looking door-knockers— or perhaps doorknobs? —hanging ominously at the center.

"Reminds me of those medieval Vampire castles," muttered Jiraiya, a shiver running down his spine.

"It's just Voldemort in there," said Orochimaru, rolling his eyes, "But of course, there might be Vampires as well. Harry once told me that Voldemort would be nuts if he hadn't thought about employing a few Vampires for his army."

Tsunade snickered as she moved aimlessly around the door, as though looking for something. "I was thinking there might be holes running through this door," she explained, "Or else how could we get in. We cannot disappear through it if the said barrier between us is completely trapped of air— no holes, gaps, cracks…"

"There have to be," Jiraiya assured her, "This door is too old."

"Yes, there's a few over here," said Tsunade, pointing to the corners of the door near the ground, "Extremely small, but it doesn't matter. It'll do."

"But we won't be Disappearing into it," Orochimaru shook his head, "The smoke gives away a lot. We will liquefy ourselves and seep through the door."

Just as he had expected, the other two looked rather uneasy. "Water reflects light," Tsunade pointed out, "What if one of them has a fire going on in there? They can see ripples of human-shaped water melting through the door!"

"It's almost summer, Tsunade," Orochimaru sighed, "They won't start a fire inside. It'll be way too warm."

"Candle lights, then? It's already dark!"

Orochimaru blinked, but no words came out of his mouth. Yes, he was rather surprised that he couldn't answer Tsunade's question. Orochimaru flushed as he shook his head, meanwhile trying hard not to look at Jiraiya's ridiculous gloating face, "Well, what solution do _you_ have?"

"I say we blow out the candles."

Orochimaru felt a strong desire to kick her, "And squirt out water instead of air? Plus, this is just plain ridiculous."

"I say we turn ourselves into puddles instead of our human form," suggested Jiraiya, "That way there will be less chance being spotted. Orochimaru then perform the Genjutsu, while Tsunade and I set off to find Lupin."

The other two said, "Fine."— Orochimaru a little strained— and all three of them preformed the _Gimizu no Jutsu_, with a result of three life-sized liquid humans standing in front of the mansion. If anyone happened to pass by they would surely develop a sudden heart-attack that even Kira would be openly impressed.

(Ignore the useless sentence above if you don't read Death Note- . -;;)

As the three of them melted into puddles of water and seeped in through from beneath the door, two Death Eaters were sitting roughly on the vast windowsill across the door, drinking Firewisky. They had noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

One of them took a gulp of liquor and said to the other, "Say, isn't Greyback and the whole lot of them supposed to be back about today? The Dark Lord says so…"

"Yes they are," Replied the other, "To be precise, they'll be back right about now. It won't take them too long to Apparate to here."

Sure enough, in about a few seconds later, several figures appeared with clear pops right in front of the two Death Eaters, unfortunately causing one of them to yell and drop his bottle of Firewisky.

"What the hell?" he shouted angrily as he Vanished the shattered bottle on the floor with his wand, "Couldn't you use the front door?"

"It's so damn cold ova there," Greyback turned around and growled, "We've decided t' Apparate here as soon as we can. Now light tha' fire!"

Through his rippling vision, Orochimaru cursed through his breath as one of the Death Eaters stood up from the windowsill and lit the fireplace up with his wand. Orochimaru couldn't blame anyone for this except for his own luck.

_Then we'll have to end this quickly._

Jiraiya and Tsunade seemed to have sensed danger to, and Orochimaru watched as the two puddles slowly stood up and formed the shape of the human, solidifying. Standing once again as a human among the shadowy corner of the room, the dark-haired Sannin gave a silent signal to the others:

_Once I've started to cast the Jutsu, use any possible means of technique to get away from here_.

They understood. Orochimaru turned his eyes back onto the crowed of people gathering around the fire, with all their backs facing towards him.

His foot shifted away from the shadows and took a step forward. The part of the floor where his foot made contact creaked. Orochimaru made a silent gasp and before he knew it, an angry curse was already shooting towards him in full speed.

Tsunade shouted, "Orochimaru, careful!" and Orochimaru arched backward and avoided the curse, but somewhere Death Eaters yelled and six multicolored curses came speeding across the room from different places all at once. Orochimaru bellowed, "YOU GUYS RUN!" and with one swift movement, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"DAMN HELL!" Greyback roared, who seemed both shocked and outraged at the same time, "WHERE THE BLEEDING HELL DO THEY COME FROM?" He gave another roar and leapt to grab on to Tsunade's leg. Tsunade gave a surprised yell and with a tap of her foot, launched up to the air and landed on the wall, where she leapt again, again and again, zigzagging across opposite walls until she was completely gone into the shadows. Jiraiya pulled a face at the raging Death Eaters and immediately dissolved into mist, gliding through the hallway with incredible speed.

"Don't let them get away!" A Death Eater flung off his mask and aimed a killing curse towards the end of the hall, but Dolohov seemed to have missed. "Kill this brat first!" Bellatrix jerked her head around to look for the dark haired Shinobi, "Where is he?"

"Probably hiding away like a coward," A Death Eater with a somewhat serious face answered calmly as he held his wand higher, aiming it at different angles, "There's eight of us, and only one of him. He's outnumbered."

"How do _you_ know he's still in this room? He could have gone with the other two just then!"

Avery gave a cold laugh, "Those little ninjas thought they have dozens of tricks up their sleeves, but we fought that white-haired one once! And their tricks aren't that _wide-ranged_ after all! Isn't that right, little boy?"

A figure melted half his body from the wall from behind the Death Eaters. "So, you've noticed that using the Disappearing Technique has a lot of limitations, like the maximum length from the origin to the destination is only up to 50m."

An ominous smile stretched across Orochimaru's pale face as he glanced sarcastically around the room,

"_But this room is way smaller than fifty meters,_ don't you think?"

Knowing exactly what he meant, Bellatrix gave a warning yell and fired a curse. She cried in triumph as the curse hit Orochimaru straight in the chest and exploded, but the others gasped in disbelief as the target crumpled and cracked and fell onto the floor, shattering itself into pieces.

"But it's…it's stone!" Bellatrix stammered and she stared down at the broken pieces, "It's just like the walls! But how could he—?"

Before she could be provided with a suitable answer, someone yelled behind her and shoved her aside. A Kunai whisked passed her and stuck itself onto the wall.

"What the—?" Greyback rasped. A hand had melted out from the wall and plucked out the kunai, and then the shape of Orochimaru, as a whole, stepped out completely from the solid stone.

"The ninja techniques you've witnessed a few months ago are considered 'Beginner Class'," Orochimaru said with great pleaser in his voice, "The ones I'm about to use now, though, makes a _great difference._"

The hand signs were completed incredibly fast, and before the Death Eaters could do anything else, Orochimaru spread out his arms in a swishing motion and Voldemort's followers tensed up immediately like a piece of wood. Bellatrix was the first to scream.

Orochimaru watched as she struggled from something invisible, as though the thing had bind her tightly, for her arms and legs were arched in such awkward angles.

"Get off— get off me!"

"Don't worry," Orochimaru said softly, his golden eyes reflecting coldly from the firelight, "At least your friends are with you…"

"Get those _freaking_ things off us!" A Death Eater bellowed angrily, but Orochimaru could sense the building fear in him as the Death Eater jerked his head from left to right, yelling fearfully down at who know what that only he could seem to see.

"It's only a hallucination!" one of them suddenly yelled, who still seemed to be struggling at something beyond his imagination, "That freak did this! He just wants to drive us— ARGH!" The Death Eater gave a yell of pain and collapsed onto the floor with his hands holding on to his leg.

"That 'thing' bit you, didn't it?" Orochimaru stood over the fallen Death Eater and asked with false curiosity in his voice, "Do you realize, perhaps, that the 'Unforgivable' techniques a Shinobi uses can be way beyond your measure? As far as I can tell, this Genjutsu is far worse than _Crucio_…"

He stood up, took a last look at the screaming Death Eaters, and proceeded slowly towards the hall.

At the end, all the Death Eaters could hear were the sound of disappearing footsteps as horrific creatures of their own imagination crept silently into their souls.

--------------- -------------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------------------

On and on Tsunade and Jiraiya sprinted, trying desperately to locate the correct door towards the dungeons.

"How do you know the cells are located in the dungeons?" Jiraiya muttered as he peeked inside an empty room and swung the door shut. "It's so obvious!" Tsunade snapped, "Who would place their cells on a balcony anyways?"

Fortunately for Tsunade, Jiraiya didn't seem to be in a arguing state, so he just left the conversation as that. It was until five minutes later when he spoke again, "Tsunade, do you think Voldemort knew someone have broken into his mansion? It would sound so odd for him not to know, but then it's been 15 minutes now and no one seems to be coming out to get us."

"Dunno," Tsunade shrugged, "He's probably preparing some kind of ambush…but stop worrying about Voldemort, Jiraiya. Our main purpose is to rescue Lupin and get out of here as soon as possible, and avoid the Death Eaters as best as we can."

"I think Orochimaru did well on his part," Jiraiya commented, "He probably had defeated them before they could tell Voldemort."

As the Sannins moved on, peeking their way through every single door they could reach, a small fluttering creature soared its way from above, in which then landed on a reptile-like stone statue. The bat's beady eyes glared at the unwelcomed guests from above and gave a screeching chirp. Tsunade glanced up towards the magnificent carving on the walls and spotted the little bat.

"What is it?" Jiraiya asked, turning around.

"Nothing," Tsunade replied carelessly, turning her back on it, "Just this spooky bat thing. Come on, we have to find Lupin."

The two of them disappeared around the corner. The bat blinked once, and took flight once again into the starry night. It took a graceful surge around the huge mansion and then headed directly towards the top most lighted window.

Perching on the windowsill, the bat folded its wings and stared readily at the person standing before it.

------------------- --------------------------- -------------------- ----------------------- -----------

Next chapter: yay, they found Lupin! Along with some other uninvited people!

It's always like this in novels. People glance at stuff and say it's just a cat or something when it turned out to be animals that are considerably nasty.

A friendly request from the Author: I'm getting extremely boring here (despite the amount of home work I have), and the mmorpg game I'm playing now— FlyFF— is quite boring too because of no one to talk to D:

So may I ask you to just, you know, try that game out? It's considerably small compared to other games, 500 something MB only (wow!) It's has good graphics, and is rated 8 out of 10 I think. If you don't want to waste time downloading it, well at least search the game on Google or whatever and see how it looks like ;)

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Anyone play Fiesta Online here? If you do, please tell me how's the game.

PS: I reread this chapter and thought that the writing style is getting crappier and crappier...do you think so? Maybe it's just me...I hope it's just me. By the way please tell me which chapter in this story is the most 'fluent' one, and by that I mean sentence structure.


	28. A part of the Wall

I'm sick. Again. Anyone who reads my A/N in all of the chapters would surely notice that, well, I'm a fairly weak person in health, who would just fell sick every week or so because a classmate sitting beside me had coughed a tiny cough. D:

Ah well, I'm weak at PE too lol. So I just handed a note to my teacher and told her I was sick and sat on the bench, grinning evilly at my friends as they did the Rotation Stations (if you know what I mean).

PS (One of the long paragraphs below was inspired by KAGAYA's beautiful CGing, plus my love for Astronomy. Seriously, when someone, or a book, talks about a simple black hole or the Big Bang theory, I would jump around the room uncontrollably.)

Chapter 29: A part of the wall

Harry shoved himself roughly against a wall, panting wildly, with sweat sliding down his pale cheeks.

"Is…is she gone?" he asked, trying to catch his breath between words. Beside him, Ron looked exhausted and terrified. He peered around the corner, evidently afraid that a person would just jump out in front of them unannounced.

"No…I mean yes, yes she's gone," Ron turned back to Harry, "along with her bloody Inquisitorial Squad. Good thinking Harry, using all those shortcuts…"

"Don't mention it," shrugged Harry, feeling a bit calm now, "I've used the Map." He held up the piece of ragged parchment in his sweaty hand and smoothed it out on the wall, "The girls are okay," he announced to Ron as his eyes traced carefully on the Map, "They're lucky. They made it out to the grounds."

"When you said 'girls', you mean…?"

"Hermione, Ginny, and Luna," said Harry, still scanning the Map, "The bunch of us were the last to run from the room, and Umbridge arrived late, so she could only see us right at the moment. Look— the other members are okay, they're safety back in their common rooms."

"Wait," said Ron cautiously, "Neville…isn't he with us before Umbridge shrieked and gave chase?"

Alarmed, Harry searched the Map again, "He's in the Boy's washroom on the first floor, which is fairly close to the main entrance…yes, we would just have to go out the main entrance— taking Neville with us on the way— and meet the girls outside."

Ron tiredly slammed his back onto the wall. "Such rotten luck," he muttered, "We almost got caught by Umbridge during this sort of time. We'd better hurry up though, according to your vision—"

"Yes I know," growled Harry, not wanting to think about how much time they had wasted, "We will not make any mistakes from now on. Come on, let's go."

The two of them sped off toward the stairs, softening their footsteps yet trying their hardest to run as fast as possible. When they reached the first floor, Ron yanked open the door and Harry ran into the bathroom, where he saw Neville, huddled up under one of the tall sinks, looked up in horror.

"Oh—! I thought you were—" he began in relief, but Harry pulled him up by the sleeve and said, "You're just lucky we aren't Malfoy and the others. Don't hide right in front of the door though, okay?"

"I hid in here after they've checked," Neville pointed out as he ran out the bathroom to join Ron as well. "But still," Harry corrected him, and the three of them pushed open the oak front doors, though just wide enough for a person's width, and squeezed through it.

The cool night air outdoors sent a shiver up Harry's spine. He looked onwards and witnessed a scene of magnificent landscape of mountains, tall forest trees and Hagrid's little hut, its light shining peacefully through the calm darkness. The dark blue sky above was dotted with hundreds and millions of stars, and every now and then there would be a patch of colored dust floating with them, the nebulas illuminating their softest yet brightest colors into the universe. How ironic it was, compared to the situation Harry and the others were in.

"Hey, I think I see Hermione," Ron nudged Harry in the arm and pointed, "Look. See the moving shadows over there?"

Echoing footsteps sounded behind them, followed by an all-too recognizable shriek, "Hurry up and find them, boys and girls, this is our big opportunity!"

"Right," Ron snorted, "I can't wait to get out of here, Umbridge's acting as though we were a bunch of illegal dragons…"

"I know," said Neville nervously, "We would have to leave Hogwarts without them noticing, though…"

And Harry took off, running his fastest down the hill towards the tiny people from below. "We'll discuss this once we meet Hermione and the others," he called back, yet only loud enough for Ron and Neville to hear, "Our first priority is to get reunited first."

The minute Harry approached the girls, Hermione had flung herself on him, sighing in relief, "Thank goodness! I thought you guys were captured!"

"Oh we could do better than that," said Ron, raising his eyebrows, "The main point now, is that how do we get to…where is it again?"

"Department of Mysteries," said Harry.

"Right. So…any ideas?"

"We've been discussing this before you guys came," said Ginny, "Luna suggested that we could ride on Thetrals…"

Ron gave a snort.

"And they could travel 200 km/h!" said Luna enthusiastically, "Traveling to London will be so much easier! Hmm, I wonder why people use brooms instead of Thestrals…brooms can break and fall apart, and it has splinters, too…Thestrals won't break…it's hard imagining it breaking…and it can be a human pet as well! And—"

"Okay, okay! We get the idea," Ron grunted, and Ginny giggled, "Fine, use whatever you want, as long as it can take us to Sirius…"

--------------- ------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- --------------------

The ringing of the old fashioned Muggle phone made Sirius jump. He stared at the Muggle-device suspiciously.

"Who would use the phone to call_ us_? It wouldn't be some stupid Muggle advertisement, would it?"

"Can't be. It's past midnight," growled Moody, as he turned a page of his book,   
"It must be Hogwarts. McGonagall had trouble contacting HQ because the fire places and stuff were guarded by that Umbitch woman. So we've decided to use the phone instead. A Muggle technology. She won't think of that."

"I see," muttered Sirius as he picked up the ringing phone with his right hand, "Hello? It's McGonagall right?" He took a sip of coffee form his left.

A moment's pause, and Sirius spat coffee all over the table. Unfortunately, Moody received a face-full of it.

"WHAT THE (beep) DID YOU SAY?" bellowed Sirius as he jammed his coffee mug onto the table, making it crack.

"Language, Sirius!" shouted McGonagall's angry voice, and Sirius immediately hushed up, "It's a shock to all of us, I know, but I'm telling the truth."

"And he fell for it?" breathed Sirius in disbelief.

"You can't say that Harry fell for it, no," said McGonagall, shaking her head on the other side of the line, "Let's just say that he cares too much for you…"

"I'll…I'll kill that wretched Kreacher if I had to!"

"Oh no you won't!" came McGonagall's tern voice again, "Dumbledore will deal with Kreacher. But first things first, Harry's currently in danger, along with some of his friends, and—"

Her speech broke off for a moment, making Sirius even more nervous. When McGonagall spoke again, he could sense that, somehow, her face had turned quite pale. "There's more," she announced, sounding grave, "The three ninjas. One of the portraits said they have disappeared too."

Moody clumped forward to stand beside Sirius, and took the phone from him. "I can hear you quite well over here, McGonagall," he grunted, "And what do _you _think? Do you think they disappeared for the same purpose?"

McGonagall sounded rather confused, "Why, of course! Why wouldn't they?"

Moody grunted his disapproval, "I think not."

"State your reason then."

"It's only my guessing," he explained, "but I feel certain that it's right. There was something you didn't know about the night of the attack. It was about Tsunade: she felt extremely ashamed for herself when she had failed to protect Lupin that night. Furthermore…" he narrowed his eyes to think, "we went to Hogwarts to visit Harry and his friends, as well as ask them more about the case of Remus…Tsunade looked desperate, all right…"

McGonagall, on the other end, looked rather horrified, "What you mean is…oh don't tell me they went to _rescue_ Lupin!"

Moody's jaw muscle twitched; he didn't like how McGonagall reacted. "Well of course they— as in those three brats— went to rescue him," he growled, "it's a crime to say this is blind guess! Judging from her expression back then, I knew Tsunade wouldn't just let this past, she owned Lupin one anyways. Furthermore, she had gained herself a lot of information through our discussion back in Hogwarts."

"I see," nodded McGonagall, closing her eyes, "Well then, if your theory is accurate…then we're in big trouble."

"You don't have to tell me that," Moody growled again.

The receiver was loud enough for Sirius to hear, and he turned anxiously around to face Moody, "…What do we do now?"

McGonagall waited as silence pasted through the receiver on her end, then Moody's voice sounded, "We go for Harry first."

"And what about the ninjas?" she responded furiously, "Again, if your guess is correct, that means they're heading toward _Voldemort's hideout_!"

"But one thing for sure," said Moody calmly, though there was an obvious ripple of impatience in his tone, "is that these children outstand wizards."

There was silence on the other end.

"If the Order can beat the Death Eaters,_ they _can as well," he continued, ignoring the absence of voice, "from my point of view, they are…extraordinary children."

"…I see," McGonagall sighed after a long moment, "Well then, if it's not for the lack of help we can offer, then I might as well argue my point with you until I win. Call as many Order members around here as possible. We'll track Harry down using the Trace. Save him and his friends from Voldemort as fast as you can."

Moody grunted and was about to hang up when McGonagall added sternly, "But if _anything_ happened to the ninjas, keep in mind that it'll be your entire fault."

Moody rolled his (normal) eye impatiently at McGonagall's nonsense and slammed the receiver down. He then snatched his traveling cloak from the coat hanger and stomped pass Sirius.

"What are you waiting for?" he spat as he yanked open the front door of Grimmauld Place, "Hurry up and contact the Order members!"

Five minutes later, as the bunch of them head toward the Ministry of Magic on brooms, Sirius couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Was Moody so certain that the Sannins could handle the Death Eaters themselves? Even though Harry would always be number one on Sirius's list, he still suppressed the urge to turn around and find the Sannins instead.

He felt torn at the moment, as the icy wind sped past him and his broom. If the Sannins were injured, it wouldn't only be Moody's fault, but the whole Order's as well.

---------------------- ---------------------- ------------------------ ------------------------ --------

"Hey, you hear something?" asked Lupin as he chewed his apple hungrily, while looking around the cell as if sensing something unusual, "It's might be coming from upstairs."

"Just hurry up and eat your damn apple," growled Severus impatiently, "If a patrol comes and found out that I've offered you food—"

"Yeah I know, sorry," answered Lupin, gulping down his apple and taking a sip of water from the water bottle, "But really, I swore I heard something…"

"I'm not a bothersome wolf like you," snorted Severus as he stood up and prepared to leave, "A normal person's senses isn't—"

An explosion that erupted in front of him cut him off his words. Severus barely avoided it by slamming himself against the wall. Lupin dropped his water bottle, looking shocked and bewildered, "What—"

"OH MAN! I _TOLD_ YOU HE IS HERE! AND YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE ME!" a young, triumphed voice called out through all the dust and particles as two human forms emerged from the wreckage. Lupin almost choked on his mouthful of water when he saw who the newcomers were.

"Tsunade! Jiraiya!"

Tsunade rushed forward and threw herself onto Lupin. Jiraiya turned to the two bewildered adults as he brushed the dust off his robes. "Oh, just ignore her," he grinned, "You guys should really thank us, you know. It took us fifth-teen minutes to find the cell entrance!"

He turned towards Snape as though expecting a thanks from him as well, but he did not look grateful. Instead he sped towards Jiraiya and knocked him on the head with a piece of stray wooden plank, "What the hell are you thinking! Parading through the Dark Lord's mansion and bashing open the cell?"

Severus's expression looked considerably dangerous, and Jiraiya couldn't help but gulped, "Um…well…we've come to rescue Lupin. You know…the door is quite hard, seeing that it's made of metal…"

"And you've decided to explode your way through without thinking about the consequences!"

"Well, that's not entirely true," this time it was Tsunade who spoke. She stood beside the still confused Lupin with a winning smile spreading across her face, "We assumed that Orochimaru had took care of the Death Eaters."

"All forty seven of them?" Severus asked sarcastically, "_Plus_ the Vampires?"

"There're Vampires around here?" yelped Jiraiya, taken aback at what he had heard.

"Indeed there are," Lupin replied calmly, "They glide through the corridors every now and then…and Dementors as well, though they're mainly gathered on the East Wing, so I'm not surprised that you two didn't run into any of them."

"Still, you brats shouldn't be storming in like foolish heroes," glared Severus, still looking furious, "I bet you everything that you sneaked out of Hogwarts without the Professor's knowledge?"

"Even though we did, I couldn't just leave Lupin in here like this," said Tsunade defensively, "I owe him one." She turned and gave Lupin a confident thumbs-up. The werewolf was about to say something when he stopped and yelled in alarm.

Six jets of light flew through the crumbled cell door and the people within the room made a desperate attempt to dodge them. Five of them did, but Jiraiya didn't. He slammed himself against the wall but failed to avoid the red curse shot straight at him and got hit square in the chest.

The spot felt like burning fire as he cursed and fell to the floor, coughing out blood.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade screamed as she sped towards him, "Jiraiya! Don't!"

Witnessing the scene, Remus and Severus jerked their head up and saw six Death Eaters— and a Vampire— crowded in front of the blown-up door, all of their wands raised. A bat screeched and fluttered to land on the Vampire's shoulder, its blood-shot eyes scanning the scene from above.

"So, those two brats are the intruders you're talking about, eh?" one of the Death Eaters spoke to the Vampire as his eyes lingered on the tearful Tsunade and the suffering Jiraiya. His expression changed into a look of surprise when Lupin and Severus fell into his gaze, "And Snape? What the hell are you doing in there?"

"…To deliver water to the werewolf," he replied with a sneer, "Before you guys— and those brats— came crashing in." He then straightened up and swept towards the Death Eaters, ignoring Lupin's gaze.

"But that's Greyback's job."

"Of course it's his job, if he hadn't just come back from his freezing little trip," Severus replied coldly as their eyes met. For a split second, suspicion sizzled passed, but it the Death Eater who broke the gaze and called to his comrades, "All of you, take care of the werewolf along with those two, I'll contact the Dark Lord!"

"And call him back all the way from London?" said Snape, raising his eyebrows sarcastically, "Keep in mind that they are no ordinary beings—"

"You sound more and more fishier to me these days," the Death Eater sneered, "Oh, I know. Maybe you won't let me call the Dark Lord because you're _afraid_ that he might come and finish off those brats and the Order member! Am I right?"

Severus was about to response when his eyes gleamed. And then he smirked coldly, "I'm just afraid that _they_ will finish_ you_ off first before the Dark Lord arrives."

The Death Eater narrowed his eyes furiously and he spat, "How dare you say—" but was unable to finish his sentence as a bone-chilling crack echoed through the whole cell and he fell, lifeless, with his neck twisted, onto the stone floor.

The other Death Eaters and the Vampire, who were pinning down Lupin and the struggling Tsunade, turned at the source of the noise.

There stood Orochimaru, right beside Snape and over the fallen body. "Guess I'm late," he said coldly, raising his eyebrows looking unconcerned as he stared at the scene below. That's when he saw Jiraiya, slumped to the ground with much blood spilled on his front.

Orochimaru jerked his head towards Tsunade, who looked utterly helpless. And then she smiled.

"There's another one! Catch him!" roared a Death Eater who was pinning Tsunade down onto the floor. He was about to aim a curse at Orochimaru when he felt the fabric beneath his hand disappear and yelled in confusion as he tumbled to the floor, along with several Death Eaters.

Before any of them could figure out what had happened, the Vampire— who was currently holding Lupin as hostage— gave an angry hiss as something ran into him and slammed him straight into the wall. Orochimaru took advantage of this and surged himself forward into the fighting mess, slithering through the shocked and confused Death Eaters at ease. The wall met up with him and Orochimaru spun around in midair, made contact with his feet on the wall and pushed forward, in which his whole body shot through the air towards the way he had come. The whole process wasted less than five seconds, when the Death Eaters looked back, Orochimaru was already standing calmly on his original spot.

A cloud of smoke appeared beside Orochimaru and there stood Tsunade, with the unconscious Jiraiya by her side, along with the _very _confused Lupin.

"Hey—! The girl got the werewolf!" yelled a Death Eater, looking both outraged and frightened, "But how the hell did she—?"

"But more importantly," growled another as he glared at Orochimaru, gritting his teeth, "What have _he_ done to us? Didn't you guys see him sped pass us just then?"

The rest of the Death Eaters raised their wands cautiously, glaring at Orochimaru, as though waiting for something unusual to happen.

Seconds ticked by, and Orochimaru sighed sarcastically, "If you really want to know, you should ask! But it doesn't matter now…" his golden pupils failed to hide a gleam, "…because I'm going to demonstrate."

He held out his forefinger: it seemed to be bleeding badly on the tip. Orochimaru then folded his fingers into a tight fist and called, "Kai!" while opening his blood-stained hand again in an instance.

At once, painful and horrific yells pierced through the whole cell as the Death Eaters grasped their stomachs and vomited blood, splattering scarlet puddles across the cold stone floor. There was an exception though, as one of them clasped his heart instead of his stomach and laid thrashing painfully on the floor, in which a few fading heartbeats later, he was limp and motionless.

"I was supposed to give them equal suffering, you know," shrugged Orochimaru, pointing at the first dead victim— the Death Eater with the sudden heart failure— "But I guess he got lucky; my aim on him wasn't as perfect as the others." He watched as the other victims slowly died, and the screams inside the cell gradually decreased.

Orochimaru turned towards the people standing on either side of him, as though waiting for their approval, but all he received was Tsunade's (expected) outburst. "I can't believe it!" she yelled at him, furious, "Although they were Death Eaters, you couldn't just ignore the rules and use the Forbidden Jutsus! Oh just where the _hell_ did you learn these— these— unacceptable—"

"You say this sort of rubbish every single time I use them, Tsunade," said Orochimaru uncaringly, "If I ask you what is the differences between my forbidden Jutsus and Crucio, Avada Kedavra, are you able to answer me?" he cast a sideway glance at his comrade, who glared but said nothing, and turned her head towards the still unconscious Jiraiya.

Fuming, Tsunade knelt down and started treating Jiraiya's wounds. Unfortunately, the two still conscious Sannins seemed to have forgotten the existence of the two grown up wizards.

Slowly recovering from the shock, Severus moved his gaze from the bloody mess below to Orochimaru, who had his back turned and was observing Jiraiya and Tsunade.

He could not think of any suitable word to describe this boy.

"Um…" a weak, barely audible voice announced its presents, and Severus jerked his head to see Lupin looking at him. He could easily tell that the werewolf looked both shocked and revolted.

When Severus raised his eyebrows, Remus pointed in front of him and mouthed the words,

"_Did he just wreck their stomachs?_"

Again, Severus turned his head back onto the scene, and after a while he finally said, "…I guess so…"

Lupin watched as Severus stood there for a bit. Then with a smooth turn on his heels, he walked away swiftly and disappeared into the darkened hallway.

Just then, a relieved sigh came from Tsunade as she announced, "Good! Even though Jiraiya's wounds are critical, I've still managed to stop the worse from happening."

"How is he?" asked Lupin worriedly.

"That spell seemed to have pierced through his stomach," answered Tsunade gravely, "Reminds me of those shot guns people who are not Shinobi uses for military purposes and perhaps, for hunting animals."

Orochimaru stared at Jiraiya's wound. "Well, at least I've given them what they deserved," he smirked, in which Tsunade's jaw muscle twitched angrily.

Something groaned, and the three people glanced down to say Jiraiya awakening, rather painfully. He hissed as he tried to sit up and covered his wound cautiously with his hand.

"Idiot! Lie down and don't move," snapped Tsunade as she hurriedly, and gently, pushed him back down. Jiraiya muttered something in his breath, and Tsunade huffed, "Well, you'd better be thankful! If it was not for me, your stomach acid might as well burn through your whole body!"

At this point, Jiraiya stayed still like a good boy and didn't move, but his voice croaked when he asked, "How- how are those Death Eaters…?"

"Stop worrying, they're all gone," said Orochimaru, unconcernedly staring at the pile of messy corpses, "I stuffed them all in one swipe. I'm just sorry that you wouldn't be able to see it."

Jiraiya snorted, "As if I would be impressed by _your_ Jutsus!"

Orochimaru ignored him and turned towards Lupin, who was standing awkwardly among them, "You all right?"

Lupin blinked, and smiled as he scratched his head, "I really couldn't thank you three enough, even though I strongly disagree with your dangerous acts…"

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," smirked Tsunade sarcastically, "Really, we've been through a lot more than this—"

"Yeah," agreed Jiraiya, "A lot worse than a pierced stomach." He thought about his broken ribs during the Chuunin Exam and mentally shuddered.

Orochimaru looked out the huge, glass-paned windows. "This mission is way easier than I thought," he finally said, turning back to face the party, "But we'd better get out of here quick…I sense that something's not quite right…"

"Oh, me too," piped up Tsunade curiously, "I wonder where Voldemort is, anyway? How couldn't he have known that his followers were in trouble?"

"Severus said that Voldemort is in London," said Lupin, "But as to what he will be doing there, he did not know."

"I do now."

The silky voice echoing through the hall made them all jump. Snape was coming back, and Lupin noticed that he was looking slightly anxious, though expressionless nonetheless.

"Bad news," he announced, approaching the small group, "Potter and some of his ignorant friends had decided to sneak out of school for some outrageous adventures."

Knowing that Severus didn't mean what he said, Lupin asked urgently, "What happened? Where are Harry and hid friends heading towards?"

Snape paused a bit, and then said, "Dumbledore said that they're heading towards the Department of Mysteries…"

Lupin's eyes went wide, but the Sannins just stared confusingly, perhaps with concern as well. "Do you mean Harry's in trouble?" Jiraiya urged, ignoring the pain as he tried to sit up, "Is it something related to that Umbitch woman?"

Severus's mouth twitched slightly at the mention of the Inquisitor's nickname, but remained cold-faced nevertheless, "No, it has nothing to do with her, but with something much, much more serious— the Dark Lord."

"We have to save them, then," nodded Tsunade solemnly, "If they're in so much trouble."

"Aaaaww— riiiiiggghtttt!!!! That means more Death Eater ass-kicking!" yelled Jiraiya, jumping up, who then collapsed back onto the floor, wincing in pain. Lupin edged over to help him, but Orochimaru just smirked, looking amused, "It's all right, he deserves it."

"Um, although," said Lupin uncertainly, "It's dangerous over there, really, you shouldn't go, and the other Order members are on their way anyway…right?" he turned to Snape for support, and much to his relief, he nodded.

"Ha-ha…your words won't change anything, Lupin-kun," smirked Jiraiya as he sat up again, "We're going, and that final. Harry's our friend."

Lupin blinked at Jiraiya's last sentence, as he felt something warm swimming inside him. It was a few seconds later when a small smile spread across his face, and he said, "If you insist, then. But I'm coming too…what about you, Severus?" he added, turning to the man standing beside him.

"I can't go," Severus said, immediately turning away, as if to leave, "…He said…I have to stay."

Lupin acknowledged his meaning, and straightened himself up. "Very well, take care of yourself then. But may I ask, what would you tell him once he is back, and discovered this mess?"

"Don't worry," the other replied, perhaps with a hint of amusement in his voice, "I'm sure I could think of something to say." He walked away.

"Well then," Lupin said, turning back to face the Sannins, "Let's get going."

"But how do we get there?" Tsunade asked, "Hermione told me once that the Department of Mysteries, which is inside the Ministry of Magic, is located in…what's that called? London?"

"You're right," nodded Lupin, "And judging from this wilderness, it's quite far."

"No worries," said Orochimaru, giving them the slightest smile, "Kurogumo will do the job. Just give us the directions, Lupin."

"Kurogumo…?" echoed Jiraiya, but Orochimaru just gave him a 'just watch' look, and bit his thumb, slamming his whole hand onto the ground. Runic and Symbols immediately slithered out from the center of his palm and across the floor, in which then gave an ominous rumble.

Lupin quickly braced himself from the upcoming impact and sure enough, there was a loud crunching noise and the ground split in half, forming a still-crumbling gap in front of Orochimaru. What appeared in the gap made Lupin's jaw fall: it was a gigantic snake, pearly white, with blazing red eyes. Judging from its size, it was at least twenty feet tall and longer than any longest broomsticks Lupin could remember. (The longest he had seen was during a random— and pointless— exhibition. Thirty meters long, completed with polish and glazes sparkly enough to even blind someone who had their eyes closed, the gigantic broom had to be a promotion…it _had _to be!)

"Er…yes, anyways…" said Lupin, feeling dazed, "…Wow…how you managed to do that?"

To his surprise, the white snake talked in a sort of clear, cunning voice, "Why, foolish humans…someone_ summoned_ me, much to my displeasure…" it turned towards Orochimaru accusingly with burning eyes, who just looked back, amused.

"Well, no time to complain, Kurogumo," said the dark-haired Sannin, "you have a job to do: take us all, as fast as you can, to a certain place."

The pearly white snake hissed, clearly irritated, but said nothing as the humans climb onto its head, with Lupin feeling slightly uneasy.

"Hmm, _Kuro_gumo, huh?" said Jiraiya, glancing down and its pearly white scales, "Doesn't really suit you, does it?"

"Shut up, kid," hissed the snake, "If you don't want to be eaten alive, that is." Feeling insulted, Jiraiya tried to argue back, but was hushed silently by Orochimaru.

"_His temper is worse than Manda,_" Orochimaru mouthed the words, and Jiraiya blinked, feeling relieved that he hadn't said anything.

Lupin, who was sitting beside Tsunade, glanced around cautiously. But his mind was far from the fear of the snake. "I can tell the way…" he said slowly to the others, "If only I have a compass."

Feeling even more amused, Orochimaru silently fished inside his pouch and handed the compass the Lupin, who didn't expect anyone to have one. Jiraiya, meanwhile, was looking rather irritated. Tsunade giggled.

"I just_ know _that it would come in handy," explained Orochimaru, who shrugged.

"Now then," he continued, peering down at the snake's eyes, "When I mean travel, I mean travel _above_ the ground, not _in_ it. Understood? We won't want the little incident like last time happen again, _do we_?"

Kurogumo rolled its red eyes, "Fine…fine. Whatever."

"All right then," said Tsunade cheerfully, turning to Lupin, who had just finished adjusting the compass, "Let's get going, shall we?"

---------------------- ------------------------------- ------------------------- -----------------------

Right. Judging by the length of this story, I think it'll soon end in about…four to five chapters, I think? Five's the most, I promise.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: (well, not as important, to certain people) I have decided to make use of my profile page, in other words, I will from now on put updates and notices just so you can get informed by certain delays, early-updating, malfunctions etc. I've already posted one up there just in case. You can go to my page and see, whatever you like. Hmm, I'm doing this because I don't want to write so much A/N in here. It's 'cheating spaces', if you know what I mean.


	29. Lore

A few days ago in Science class, we learned about Mitosis and Meiosis. I inwardly cursed the scientists for making our lives miserable by naming the cell-life-cycle processes with _such names_ that would surely break the 'Most Confusing Nouns in the Whole World' record.

Those two words made me stupid as well! I'm typing out scientific nouns on my fanfic! Wow!

…I'll just stop.

PS (the cartoon/self-proclaimed anime-whatever-rubbish— "Kappa Mikey", is going to the dogs.)

Chapter 30: Lore

Hermione took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down as the furious fight behind the pole she was hiding from raged onward. Occasionally there would be an explosion loud enough to make Hermione squeak and jump like a frightened mouse.

"Oh Harry…!" she whispered anxiously, peering out the corner every now and then, trying to locate Harry and her friends. Yet the battlefield was so dusty and dangerous, with Death Eaters shouting out spells and sharp glass flying everywhere that it was almost impossible for Hermione to pinpoint their location.

_Oh why is this happening?_ Hermione gulped, and tears started to swim in her eyes, _Didn't I tell Harry not to come? Didn't I tell Harry that this might be a trap? Oh, why the hell is he so stubborn?_

A curse surged passed her by a few centimeters and hit the wall in front of her, causing the cement to explode. Hermione quickly braced herself from harm.

She and her friends were in desperate need of help, but the pitiless fact about no one knowing anything of the situation they were in right now, just made Hermione feel even worse.

_But now, my friends need every help I can offer, and right at this moment I'm hiding here like a coward while the others are risking their lives to fight off the Death Eaters!_ Leaning against the pole, Hermione slowly straightened up as guilt stabbed through her heart. She held a tight grip of her wand, took a deep breath, spun around and dashed out into the vindictive and merciless battlefield.

"We're almost there!" Lupin called out as the trees beside him rushed backward, "You guys see the glinting roof? That's the building right beside the Telephone Booth."

"Hurry up," Orochimaru addressed the snake, and it slithered forward even faster, "Be sure to stay among the trees, though. We won't want people on the streets to see us."

"You'd think_ I _wanted that as well?" snapped the snake.

Ahead of them the trees thinned, uncovering a mass of neon lights, people, and cars rushing through the crowded traffic. But still the snake soared forward with incredible speed.

Jiraiya started to feel that something was wrong, "Er…Orochimaru? I think he should stop now."

"You can stop now, Kurogumo," called Orochimaru through the wind, "You can drop us off now."

But the snake spread an evil grin across its cunning face, "Oh, I just want to check out something, that's all—"

"Wait, no!" Tsunade panicked, "The people! The people will see—"

They burst through the cover of trees and leaped into the open. Through this split second of pure horror, Lupin took a glance at the Muggles on the streets, seeing if they'd seen the giant snake. A few of then did look up, but to his confusion, they didn't seemed to be frightened. As a matter of fact, they looked down and continued their business as though nothing had happened.

Lupin glanced ahead, and discovered that they were still speeding through the Muggle streets with such speed that the things around him became blur. Were they speeding by so fast that even the Muggles could detect only little of their existence?

"Hold on tight!" Kurogumo hissed as it zigzagged between all the traffic. Orochimaru gave it a dangerous growl, "Who told you to show off your worthless skills, Kurogumo! There's no time for you to play here!"

"There's a lot you haven't seen form me, kid," replied the snake, with a hint of smugness in its tone. Before Orochimaru could guess its next move, the snake gave a violent twist and dived straight down towards solid ground.

Tsunade screamed and shut her eyes, thinking that the very next second she would be slammed right onto the hard cement in front her, but no impact came. Feeling confused, she opened her eyes, and was as shock as the others could be: They were drilling through the earth, yet no damage was done, for the rocks and minerals soared passed them as though they were nothing but gas.

For a second Tsunade thought they had turned into ghosts, but the thought was somehow dismissed by some fact that even she couldn't explain.

"What just happened?" Jiraiya shouted fearfully, snapping his head around to stare at this unbelievable sight as compressed rock shot right through him, "Orochimaru! What did that snake do to us?"

"Let me guess, you turned us all into transparent…stuff…" growled Orochimaru, unable to control his fury for being teased by the snake's unpredictable action.

The snake gave a satisfied hiss, as though enjoying its master's embarrassment, before it said, "Ha-ha, not bad eh? This is one of my skills that I decided to keep it just to myself. I didn't even tell my wife about it!"

"I don't give a damn about your wife…" Orochimaru muttered, "Now I'd better hope you know where you're going!"

The snake snorted, as if mad at Orochimaru for not trusting its instincts, but Lupin, despite the fact that he had gone green in the face due to this bazaar speeding-into-the-rocks-without-getting-knocked-out situation, explained calmly, "Well, the Ministry is huge; we will somehow end up in it anyways. Though I guess we will still have to find a way towards the Department of Mysteries…"

Almost instantly, Lupin's worry was solved. Kurogumo seemed to have detected something, as he turned his around to face the people on his back. "I sensed something slightly to my left," it hissed, "…humans…yes, I smell humans, along with a vibration of unknown…stuff."

"Could the vibrations be magic, then?" Jiraiya questioned Orochimaru, "And the people it sensed might be Harry and the others!"

"Could be true," Tsunade pointed out, "Why not go and check?"

"Fine," replied Orochimaru, as he leaned forward to command the snake, "Go there then, Kurogumo, if you've truly sensed something unusual."

"Stay still then," said the snake mischievously, "I might choose to bash through the wall into the building, depending on my mood right now."

"Come out, come out, where ever you are," a snide voice sang out through the wrecked and dusty room, making the tension within unbearable than ever. Harry really couldn't stand this, he felt like a cowering rabbit inside a hostile forest waiting to be eaten by any stray cat that passed by. He could die any moment now.

Beside him, Ginny was shivering, whether in pain because of her injured ankle or because of pure fear Harry couldn't tell. He mouthed the words "you all right?" to the fourth-year and she nodded firmly, though her tightly shut mouth gave away that she was suffering badly.

The two of them were hidden behind a huge strange stone statue, at least vast enough to conceal all of them, so that the Death Eater who was taunting his prey like a hunter didn't seemed to have seen anything.

"Just come out already! I don't have all day!" he sneered around the room again, who then gave a rasping laugh. Harry narrowed his eyes, trying desperately to find a way out of this mess.

There were other tings he had to worry about as well. Even though he was quite sure Hermione and Ron were together, their exact location was still unknown, and the last time Harry had seen Luna and Neville seemed to be ages ago.

"Let's…let's try…to overpower him," suddenly Harry was snapped out of his thoughts as Ginny whispered, while trying hard to ignore the stabbing pain that throbbed in her twisted ankle, "We have two wands…and he only has one!"

Harry wasn't too sure about this. What if they were spotted and the Death Eater reacted faster than they did? He knew that the Death Eater couldn't kill him because of Voldemort's orders, but Ginny would put her life as risk if discovered.

But what other choices did Harry have? Surely help wouldn't come at a time like this?

Harry closed his eyes, blindly wishing for anything,_ anything_, to arrive by their side when all hope seemed lost. A few painful seconds later, when the Death Eater was still stalking playfully somewhere among the room, calling out his name, Harry realized that he would just have to face the truth. Nobody was going to come.

"Let's go then Ginny," he whispered into her ear, and she stared back at him, her chestnut-colored eyes as determined as ever. She nodded. "On the count of three, then," continued Harry, making his voice as low as possible, afraid that the Death Eater might hear their voices, "You attack on the left side and I on the right. One…two…three!"

On Harry's final signal, both of them swirled their bodies around and pushed with their feet, enabling them to dash out from behind the statue and aim a clear shot at the surprised Death Eater:

"STUPEFY!"

There was a yell mixed with shock and rage, and then the next second, the man had fallen down, limp as a board.

Staring down at the Death Eater's motionless body, Harry backed away and sighed gratefully. Ginny was still panting beside him. "Well, at least we're temporarily save now," she said, smiling while trying to sooth the pain that came stimulating through her twisted ankle.

"Yeah," Harry said, straightening up, and glanced around the clearing. Apart from the Death Eater lying awkwardly faced-down on the floor, nothing inside the room seemed to be out of place. At last he concluded, "I think we really are safe now, Ginny. Let's get back out and find the oth—"

WACK.

The unexpected sharp blow on his head made Harry scream out loud as he stumbled and fall to the ground, covering his blood-streaming head in pain.

"HARRY!" He heard Ginny's frantic scream beside him, then suddenly her scream stopped so abruptly that Harry panicked even more. "Ginny? Ginny!"

Harry's body suddenly tensed, and he felt a wand poking straight at the back of his throat, followed by a clear, cold voice, "This will be your last chance, Potter. _Give me the prophecy._"

Harry tried to struggle, but pointed tip of Lucius's wand stabbing at his neck didn't increase his progress to freedom at all. At last Harry gave up the attempt to escape and growled instead, "If you dare make a move, I'll smash the sphere in my hand."

"Oh you dare commend me, Potter?" Lucius hissed back, "If you smash the sphere, then your little girlfriends' heart…will be smashed open as well."

Harry gripped the floor with his fingers as anger and worry swept through him. Even though he couldn't see, he could still tell that Lucius had taken control over Ginny. But one thing for sure, at least, was that Ginny wasn't dead yet. Harry closed his eyes again, trying to think of any possible way that could get them out of this. The prophecy, which was held tight in his palm between the weight of his body and the floor, seemed to giving out unusual heat.

"Fine," Harry said, "But you have to let me get up first."

"I don't need you to get up Potter. Just hand it to me now!"

"I want to see if Ginny's okay! If you don't let me up, I'll smash the prophecy."

An amused smirk curled up Lucius' lips, "Didn't I tell you that if you break it, the girl will die as well?"

Harry hesitated. Then he picked out his words carefully, "Of course I've heard about that. If I really don't have a choice, then the sphere will be my first priority. At least I could have prevented you from taking it."

Feeling extremely amused and taken-aback by the boy's words, Lucius' smirk grew even wider, until he let out a shout of laugher and said, "Incredible, Potter! Simply incredible! Ignoring your friend's endangered life to protect something of your own? What would the Wizarding World say about this when they've found out that the _savior _of human kind has turned into a selfish coward?"

"Who says that I'm protecting things of my own?" panted Harry, still holding on to the sphere tightly, "I'm merely preventing Voldemort from taking what he wants." As he spoke, his hand gripping on his wand rotated slowly so that, though invisible to Lucius, it was pointing straight at him.

"Do not speak the Dark Lord's name!" the Death Eater spat angrily, clearly unaware that Harry had his wand aimed at himself. "I don't give a damn about Voldemort, Malfoy," Harry replied as he silently waited for the right time to come.

_If I could just aim properly at him with a Stunning spell, we might be able go get out of here_, thought Harry,_ but if I missed…he would see right through my act._

_Oh well, it's worth a try._

"Stupe—" BOOM.

Harry gasped at the deafening crash that seemed to come from behind him and covered his head as quickly as he could as large chunks of cement and rocks showered down upon his body. Somewhere in the distance he could hear Malfoy's shout of astonishment. For a second Harry thought wildly of Ginny, who was probably unconscious and exposed to the huge unknown explosion.

Immediately he called her name out loud again, ignoring the chocking dust that came rushing up into the air and into his mouth, "Ginny! Ginny! Can you hear me? Are you all right? GINNY!"

A voice somewhere in the room responded to him, making Harry sigh in relief, yet his joyfully of knowing Ginny was okay quickly turned into horror when he recognized that the voice did not belong to Ron's sister.

"Ginny?" Harry called out again through the smoke, desperately hoping that the voice he had heard was actually Ginny, "All you all right?"

This time the voice replied again, though it sounded closer to Harry than usual, "Harry? Can you hear us?"

_Us?_ Wondered it hit him,_ of course, the Order members!_

"Sirius? Lupin? —MadEye?"

Fragments of rock were still sprinkling down upon him, yet the dust and smoke had cleared significantly. Harry squinted through the misty scene and spotted shadows roaming around near the exploded entrance. Harry intake a sharp breath and dashed forward to meet them, only to scream in horror when he almost ran into the biggest snake he had ever seen. For a moment of a heartbeat he had thought the basilisk had raised from the dead, yet looking closely at its pearly white scales, Harry wasn't too sure.

Feeling slightly confused he jerked his head to his right and saw no one but Orochimaru standing right there.

"…Oh," Harry said stupidly, after discovering whom the snake belonged to.

"Hello Harry!" Harry turned his to his left and saw Tsunade and Jiraiya sitting on the floor, with the unconscious Ginny lying in front of them, "Thought I heard you calling Ginny's name somewhere in there," Tsunade said, nodding at Harry, "She's okay though. I'm not good with magic spells and stuff, but I can assume that she's just been Stunned."

A faint hiss made Harry turn his head back cautiously toward the white snake, and nearly jumped when the creature spoke, "Hehehe, we landed in a good spot, didn't we? First try and we've already succeeded in discovering a scene with pitiful-looking brats in dust-flying rooms." The golden eyes of Kurogumo stared at Harry with interest, making him feel uneasy.

"It's okay Harry. He's way better than Nagini." A fourth voice spoke from behind the snake and Lupin came walking out, smiling gratefully at Harry, "I'm really happy that you're okay, Harry."

"Thanks," was all Harry could manage to say. Staring at the people in front of him in each turn, Harry couldn't help but wonder why, out of every single Order member that he'd known enough that would come and save him no matter what the cost, the ones that had come to his aid had to be the Sannins. Truthfully he had never really expected this, but was extremely grateful nevertheless.

"Wow…I mean, I really didn't expect—'

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jiraiya smirked and yawned mockingly, "Oh I'd really want to stay in bed instead of coming to rescue you, Harry. Yet too bad, the bed sheet's still inside the laundry."

Everyone laughed at Jiraiya's joke, but the snake wasn't one of them as it hissed, "While you humans are chitchatting about some ignorant jokes, I would be grateful leave right now."

"Oh sorry," Orochimaru raised his eyebrows at it, looking unconcerned, "Yeah, I think you can go now."

Kurogumo snorted as a cloud of smoke engulfed his massive body, "Be careful of how you treat your elders, kid, or else this'll be the last time I'll help you." With that, he departed with a swish of his tail and disappeared with the fading smoke.

"Say, where's Malfoy?" asked Harry, looking around the now dust-cleared room.

"Malfoy? Why would Draco Malfoy be here?" questioned Jiraiya.

"No, I mean Lucius Malfoy. He pinned me down right before you guys bashed through that wall."

"I think I saw him," said Lupin, looking grave, "When we made the explosion through the wall, I caught a glimpse of Malfoy turning and staring at Kurogumo. He then yelled and dashed out the door over there." –he pointed toward the main entrance of the room— "I just about to aim a spell at him but was almost caught off balance."

Harry stared down at Ginny's unconscious body, and had to admit that, even though they couldn't get a hold on Malfoy, it was still considered great timing when the Sannins had decided to crash through the wall right at the moment.

"Don't worry," Lupin assured them, "He won't escape from the Department."

"I don't care what happens to him," Jiraiya snorted, "I'm just wondering: Ron and Hermione are here too, right? How come I don't see them?"

With a jolt, Harry had realized that he had almost forgotten about his other friends while trying to deal with this mess! What if…they're hurt?

"Come on! We have to find them!" shouted Harry and he bolted through the door and out of sight. The others hurriedly followed, with Tsunade placing Ginny's unconscious form over her back.

As they ran through the complicated hallways of the Department of Mysteries, the Sannins noticed that there were more than meet the eye.

"Um, have you noticed that there are a lot of doors here?" said Jiraiya, eyeing the doors on either side the walls wearily.

"Yeah, I noticed," Harry sighed, but kept on running. Occasionally he would stop and shove a door open, only to find it empty, or filled with things there were best left alone, he would then slam the door shut again and continue to search.

For the next fifteen minutes Harry searched, along with the help of the Sannins and Lupin. In the middle of their process, Orochimaru had eventually lost patience in opening and closing every door that he stopped, scribbled something furiously onto pieces of yellow-looking paper –(in Harry's point of view)—, flung them each onto a door and the next second the whole room seemed to have exploded itself into Hell.

"WHY THE _HELL_ DIDN'T YOU WARN US FIRST?" Jiraiya bellowed angrily— with his fingers in his ears—, as the endless BANGS continued all the way down the hall.

Harry didn't know whether or not to laugh, as Orochimaru ignored Jiraiya's protest and coolly peered around the doorless rooms.

"It makes the search easier, don't you think?" he said simply, when he had surveyed all of the doorless rooms and started on the other row, "Plus, if we're lucky, we might explode some of those Death Eaters as well, if they happened to be behind a door—"

"Shush," came Lupin's voice. Everyone remained quiet. The werewolf stood there, expression concentrated, as though sensing something unusual. Finally his eyes met with Harry's questioning ones, "Do you hear that?"

Harry closed his eyes in order to concentrate and listened carefully. Despite the soft crackling sounds of the shriveling doorframes, something out of the ordinary seemed to be announcing their arrival. In fact, it was growing louder and louder every passing second.

"It seems to be…coming from upstairs?" suggest Tsunade. Jiraiya groaned, "Oh you can't be serious! There's another floor inside this madhouse?"

"Be quiet Jiraiya!" hissed Orochimaru, as he eyed the ceiling suspiciously. The sound was fallen down his way, louder than ever.

Thinking that these sort of crashing noises falling through planks of levels in a building mostly took their places in cartoons, Harry suspected that for a moment the source of the sound would turn out to be a Grand Piano.

Feeling that his IQ was decreasing for no particular reason at all, Harry shouted to Orochimaru to stay out of the way. Not like Orochimaru would just stand there of course, for he easily stepped aside as the unknown crashing object came exploding through the ceiling and hitting the floor in a heap of bundles.

Knowing that a bundle of light-weighted robes weren't logically born for crashing through floors, Harry quickly yanked off the cloak and revealed an unconscious Ron, who seemed to be lying lifelessly with battle scratches and cuts all over his face and arms.

Horrified, the remaining people yanked their heads up to stare at the never-ending hole above. Judging from the blackness around the vanishing point, Ron must have fallen from a height high enough to compare with the non-existing World Trade Center.

"Oh dear…!" Tsunade sucked in a breath and quickly slide Ginny down on the floor and placed her finger underneath Ron's nose. She then did some hand signs and pressed both of her palms onto his forehead. Her hands glowed blue, and Ron seemed to have relaxed a bit.

"Jiraiya, Orochimaru," Tsunade called, ignoring the Orochimaru's narrowed eyes, "Please check if he has any broken bones. That fall was ridiculously nasty." She looked up again to stare at the Ron-made tunnel and made a face full of disbelief.

While the Sannins were tending to Ron, Harry took his eyes off his friends and glanced up at Lupin, who looked back with all-too understanding eyes. It's impossible for him to survive this fall.

Yet the truth was lying right in front of them. Though skin-injured and unconscious, the boy was fine, judging by the expression on Tsunade's face. Ron was alive, and not too badly hurt; this was confirmed a minute later by Jiraiya and Orochimaru, who told them that Ron had suffered nothing but a few scratches and a twisted arm.

Suddenly Ron gave a jerk and opened his eyelids. "…What…?"

"Ron! You're awake!" Harry rushed to his side and clasped his hands on Ron's shoulder, feeling a surge of pure relief rush through him, "You fell all the way the down here, do you know that?"

Ron's half-opened eyes send him a questioning look, "I…I fell…?"

"Don't tell me you forgot about this!" gasped Jiraiya, astonished, who then pointed at the hole above him, "Blimey, you fell through at least 30 floors!"

Ron followed Jiraiya's gesture and fixed his gaze at the hole himself. After a few moments of silence, Ron's confused expression turned grave, "Oh…yeah, I remembered. I don't know how I could get up there though…but I remembered that a Death Eater had pushed me and I fell backwards, hitting my head on the table edge as well…I think I passed out at that point…" He was still staring at the eternal blackness through the damaged ceiling, as if trying to remember the forgotten details.

"Well, you're lucky that you're not hurt badly," Lupin gave him a comforting smile, "I'm not being rude or anything, but it's really a huge miracle that you can survive this fall Ron." With that, he looked up at the ceiling suspiciously again.

Ron though, was in no mood for suspicion as he supported himself with his healthy arm and got up. Something caught his eyes and he turned to face it, "Oh god— Ginny!"

"Ron, it's okay!" Tsunade held him back firmly when Ron tried to dash toward his sister, "She's okay. She's just unconscious!"

Harry watched as Ron lost his balance and staggered slightly when Tsunade had released her grip on him, but when he turned to face Harry, the sorrow and agony carved on his tired features were noticeably visible, even as he let out a little sigh of relief, "If…if you say so, Tsunade. But we still have to find Hermione, Neville, and Luna. I was with Hermione back then, right before I fell."

"But…how do we get up there?" Orochimaru questioned, looking around them all in turn, "Getting up there myself isn't a problem, of course," –(Jiraiya snorted)— "But unless you guys could think of any spells that makes people fly…"

"Sadly, there's no such spell," answered Lupin. "Maybe we can use Gamma Bunta," Jiraiya suggested, looking hopeful.

"Gamma-what?"

Yet Orochimaru shook his head, "Drop it, Jiraiya. Even I know how high he can jump. Plus where will land after he took the first leap?" he looked at the hole, "Furthermore, the hole is too small anyways."

Retraining every single cell in his body, Jiraiya had managed to control the attempt to punch his teammate.

"Fine! Whatever!" He scoffed, "And you're so smart, you should've thought about something by now!"

As the two Sannins started to argue again, Ron stepped towards Harry and Lupin, "This hallway…I think I came here before." Without letting either one to respond, he started to walk ahead, turning his head from left to right as he studied the hallways closely, and of course, noticing the burnt entrances as well.

Suddenly he stopped dead, then spun to his right and bolted straight into a room. "Ron?" Harry called, alarmed, "Ron! Where are you going?"

Ron poked his head out from the room. "Harry, guess what? I found the room! I was in this room with Hermione just then!"

Bewildered, all of them turned around, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had stopped arguing, and stared at Ron as though he was one of those patience suffering from mental illnesses at the St. Mungo's.

"…What?" said Ron, looking unnerved. Harry shook his head, "Ron, be logical! You fell from _way up there_!"— He jerked his thumb up at the hole— "And this room is _lower_ than the highest point of that hole, how can your room possibly be this?"

Yet Ron looked quite certain. "Since when is magic logical, anyways?" he asked with a shrugged, "I am _sure _this is the room, Harry. I remembered all the bookshelves and the fancy tables in here!"

Unconvinced, Orochimaru muttered, "Just follow him and see for ourselves then."

Sure enough, when the party of people entered the room, Ron, despite the uneasy feeling that hung in the air, had enthusiastically shown them the edge of a particular old-fashioned looking table. When Harry peered closer, he could see stains of blood. Ron insisted that the blood was his.

"Tsunade! You can prove it! My head is slightly injured, am I right?"

"Well…true," Tsunade replied, her eyes darting from Jiraiya to Orochimaru, as thought seeking for their help.

"There! That proves it!" Ron laid out his hands matter-of-factedly, "Magic doesn't really make sense all the time. Furthermore, why would this place be called the Department of _Mysteries_?"

Even though Lupin had left the debate at that and did not argue, something within him seemed to squeeze uncomfortably, and it had nothing to do with his wolf genes. Perhaps the children were still too gullible to believe in something like that, but as far as Lupin could tell, nothing in world, including magic, was illogical.

**BE SURE TO READ THIS BEFORE YOU CLOSE THIS WINDOW**

Sirius and the other Order members will show up right at the start of the next chapter, and here is something I need you ALL to do. Because as you know, Sirius died in the fifth book, and I was kind of paranoid about this fact; not because I want to become emo because of his death, but because of you guys. Yes, the audiences. I still haven't mastered the art of ignorance yet when it comes down to this particular moment. **What I meant is that I need you guys to vote, whether not Sirius will die in the next chapter**. If the majority says he dies, than he dies, and he will not reappear in my Naruto version of the Deathly Hollows. If the majority says he does not die, than he will live on to Deathly Hollows (which means I get to recreate a new role for him).

Please, just vote, okay? If you think that I am cheating your reviews by forcing you to vote, then you can just send me a private massage. (Of course, if you chose not to review me, that is. Because if you want to review, why don't you just stuck the vote in as well?)

Thank you very much:)


	30. We all fall down

Hmm, okay. Here are the results:

-Kill off Sirius: III

-Keep him alive: IIIIIIIIIIIII.

For some reason, I'm not surprised. O-o For those who hope he dies, I wish you're not too disappointed.

A nice reviewer told me to use the poll next time. Lol, yeah maybe I should. XD You see, my eyes are designed to ignore betas, so I think I didn't even try to look at it back then.

Since this chapter takes place in the Department of Mysteries and all, I may as well play with it a bit, and add some of the most illogical things I can think of. ;) Don't expect me to explain the truth behind all of this craziness though, because I'm just too lazy to squeeze a suitable explanation out of my head XD The Lupin case tired me out already.

Chapter 31: 'We all fall _down_.'

"Really, I have never known the Department would be this huge," Tonks' voice echoed around the cylinder-shaped hall as one by one, the Order members filed through it. This particular hallway looked extremely unnerving, at least to Sirius that was, for he looked around and scowled in suspicion while Moody kept a straight face. Tonks simply looked curious.

It was right to be unnerved though, for the hallway's opening was only large enough for a person to pass through, which meant that the total of thirteen Order members had to walk in single file. Sirius felt as though he was squeezed inside a narrow pipe and would surely suffocate if the 'hallway' shrunk just a little more.

"Can someone remind me how the hell did we end up here again?" The Animagus grunted finally, unable to stand the mysteriousness of this situation any longer.

"I decided to take this shortcut," Moody grunted back, giving Sirius a glare, "I've been here before, for your information, and all the things still look the same to me."

"Like I would believe that. Didn't you tell me you were, what, twenty-year-old back then?"

Feeling that Sirius had gone too far, Kingley tapped on his shoulder warningly. Sirius coughed and, sensing that the magical eye was glaring at him through Moody's skull, he produced an innocent grin.

The party walked on and soon, much to Sirius' relief, they had arrived in a clearing, a clearing full of books. The strange thing was that the books weren't placed on shelves; inside they were just stacked vertically together, from floor to ceiling, as though proving that they didn't need to depend on wooden bookshelves.

Somewhere near the entrance, an unceremonious sign was stuck onto the only part of the wall not covered by books. Tonks leaned in carefully to read.

"Class-S material: All invented by 'The Rejected Alchemist' Davius Al Scormford...never heard of him. Who the heck is he anyways?"

"Tonks, be careful," Moody growled, eyeing the books uneasily, "You know you, always knocking down stuff. If you touch the books, they may as well avalanche themselves on us."

Everyone could tell that Tonks wasn't as happy as she looked when Moody had addressed her like that, yet all she did was pulled a face and walked on carefully.

The other members followed suite, their destination all locked onto the plain wooden door from across the room. As they edged onwards, Sirius took a curious glance at the books and read some their titles on the spine. Oddly enough, a small amount of them contained_ just_ the names of people he didn't even know, while others, the majority of them, remained blank at the spine.

_Books without titles? _Sirius thought, raising an eyebrow, _perhaps they rewrapped it with a blank cover…_

Stopping to study the books more clearly, Sirius could hear Moody's impatient call somewhere in front, "Oi! Sirius, don't start touching those books, I tell you!"

Feeling that Moody's words were just a false guess, Sirius slowly reached out a hand and tried to grab a book with a title that read, 'Andrew Aquila Mos.' Kingsley noticed his sudden action and tried to push his curious hand away from the book, but too late, for Sirius had already touched the spine with his finger tips.

Nothing happened.

Smiling, Sirius cast a levitation spell onto the book above the one he was holding and pulled. It slid out easily.

Ignoring the outranged bellows from the other members (Moody being the loudest), Sirius scanned the title of the book and opened it. Frowning, Sirius didn't seem to have understood much sense at the very first page:

November 16th, 1886, 23:47:35,

Hello?

November 16th, 1886, 23:47:37,

Wait—what—where am I?

November 16th, 1886, 23:47:40,

Where am I!? Help! Where am I?

November 16th, 1886, 23:47:43,

Somebody, tell me— where the hell— I can't see—

November 16th, 1886, 23:47:45,

Help! Someone— the book— I—!!

Sirius quickly slammed the book shut with such force that it produced an echoing 'bam!' around the room. Everyone jerked their heads around and stared at him. Moody quickly strode forward and snatched the book away.

"Sirius? What happened?" he asked the paralyzed man in alarm as he stared at him, both furious and cautious.

"I…" Sirius was still staring at the book in Moody's hand, his eyes incredibly wide with fright. He recalled that, as he was reading the unexplainable words inside that book, a chilly prickle seemed to have shot right through his spine, causing him to close the book as a matter of an instant spontaneous reaction.

_What can this all mean?_

Sirius absentmindedly wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead in which he didn't even seem to know of and turned his head towards the other ominous looking knowledge stacked neatly all the way up against the wall. Immediately his mind start to function like it had never done before.

…_Thousands of books…in this Department…blanked...different names…title…diary…dates…help massages……warnings……class-S…material…Alchemist…_

Another cold chill ran down his spine as though the truth about all of this mystery seemed to have found its ways into his head, and when Sirius looked around he was quite relieved to see that the other members, too, were unnerved and was urging Moody to leave this ominous room. But again, Tonks simply looked curious as she turned the pages of the book.

"Whao, almost half the pages of the book are blank," she said, perhaps a little uneasy this time, "I…I wonder why this guy…Andrew…or whatever he is, didn't have anything to write…or…say…" she suddenly turned white.

"Perhaps he's…dead, already?" feeling faintish, Sirius quickly proceeded to the door, "Look, we'd better go, Harry might still be out there—"

"Oops—sorry!" Tonks looked around at the fallen book lying on the floor. Sirius could hear Moody growl, "I think I knocked it down by accident..."

A young Order member came forward to pick up the book, "It's okay, I'll put it—"

"NO DON'T PICK IT UP! CIELO! THE COVER DOES NOT—" Right at that heart-stopping moment Sirius' mind seemed to have reflowed with all the possible explanations of the books and he jumped forward to push young Cielo out of the way, but the young man gasp as he made contact with the empty book and was, through everyone's horror, sucked right into it as though pulled by an unknown suction.

The book gave a final twitch and lied, as innocently as ever, back on the ground.

Seconds—and perhaps minutes— passed, but all of the people within the room seemed to be unaware of the time they were currently wasting. Fortunately, Tonks was the one to break the barrier as she clasped her hands onto her mouth and her lips quivered, "...Cielo?"

"Oh Cielo!"

"No!"

Moody's legs clunked themselves over to where the book lay and picked it up with seemingly numb hands, yet his eyes gave away nothing as the ex-Auror flipped through the pages. At last, he muttered, "Yes, he's in there all right." And shut the book with a heavy snap.

"No, wait! Try talk to him!" Sirius ran forward and snatched the book away. The pages, to his disbelief, contained the same demanding questions mixed within a frightened and confused atmosphere, all of them asked, perhaps mentally, from the victim himself.

"Cielo!" Sirius yelled desperately at the book, scanning the pages to look for any responses, "Cielo, please! Can you hear me?!"

April 2nd, 1995, 20:13:45,

Is—is this some kind of trick?! Please, I need to get out!

April 2nd, 1995, 20:13:51,

Please, THIS IS NOT FUNNY!! I—It's all dark here—I can't—please—!!!

"Cielo! Please, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Sirius was unaware that he was screaming and shaking the book so violently that it was a miracle it didn't tear. Yet even if he _was_ aware, he wouldn't care as much, for every time a new frightening 'diary entry' inked itself onto the yellowing parchment, Sirius' heart thumped even faster.

He felt simply horrible.

------------------------ ---------------------- -------------------- -------------------- --------------

A deafening crash to his right told Harry that nothing considerably good had happened. His hypothesis was confirmed when he turned his head around and spotted a big, gasping hole in the wall, in which, to his dismay, Death Eaters had somehow reformed themselves from the smoke and dust and started to give chase.

Harry had no choice but to run. Trying to overpower ten Death Eaters in a row would only remain to be a dream, especially when no one's backing you up.

It was ten minutes ago when Harry first discovered that the others were no longer walking behind him, so he stopped, and probably panicked.

It was not possible, he had thought back then, walking nervously around an unknown room in circles, the Sannins, Lupin, and Ron, _especially_ Ron, had been striding right behind Harry for as long as he could remember, for the red-hair's heavy footsteps were undisguisable.

And then the explosion came, and Harry found himself running madly for his life as Voldemort's supporters screamed in triumph and darted after him.

Such rotten luck. If he_ ever_ happened to find Ron during this chase, Harry was so going to make him pay for ditching him.

Harry took a brief glance behind him, and ran even faster; the Death Eaters seemed to be gaining speed. He glanced to his right and halted for a fraction of a second, twisting his foot towards the right, and darted through a narrow hallway. Again, he turned a corner whenever he saw one, wishing that the twisting passageways would confuse the Death Eaters.

A shadow swished in front of his eyes, and Harry stopped dead, surprised. It turned out to be Orochimaru, yet he was staring over Harry's shoulder at the Death Eaters.

"You run," he said simply, not letting Harry respond. Harry nodded at Orochimaru, who was still staring at the Death Eaters, and without a word, left the Sannin and continued to run, not pausing to ask where the hell the boy had disappeared to.

Orochimaru stood his ground as the Death Eaters ascended, and from inside his robes, the boy took out four pieces of symbolized parchment and flung them out at the narrow corridor, sticking them separately in a rectangular shape on the floor.

A series of swishing, mumbling noise, and the floor suddenly dissolved itself into quicksand. Some Death Eaters who happened to be too near it did not escape its wrath, and was swallowed whole as though a monstrous mouth was underneath the floor. The rest of the Death Eaters quickly jumped over the sandy area and halted, glaring at the clam boy standing in front of them.

"What, you're already scared?" asked Orochimaru, looking lazy yet expressionless, "I'd expect the rest would be more courageous, unlike the lot I've taken care of back in Voldemort's hideout. But then again, It's not like there will be much difference."

----------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------- -------------------------------

"Hey, did you hear that?" asked Jiraiya, stopping dead. Tsunade stared ahead, "Yeah...I think I hear fighting..."

"Come on, it might be Harry," said Jiraiya encouragingly, leaping into a sprint again, "Well, and perhaps a few Death Eaters as well."

The two of them gathered up speed as they ran, feeling relieved that, at least, they weren't far away from someone they knew. The sudden disappearance of Harry and his friends ten minutes ago were a complete mystery to Jiraiya, as he recalled that absolutely nothing out of the ordinary were present back in that hallway. The next thing he'd known, he was standing awkwardly with Tsunade by his side— along with the unconscious Ginny on her back— at a completely unfamiliar room.

He had tried to ask Tsunade what had happened, yet she was just as confused as he was. "This place totally creep me out," she had sighed, shaking her head.

As he ran, Jiraiya thought about Orochimaru. "You reckon he'll be okay by himself?"

"Of course. That's so obvious," the other Sannin sniffed, gripping Ginny's hand tightly so that she wouldn't fall, "He might as well prefer this, to tell the truth."

"True," Jiraiya muttered back, and left it as that.

------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------- ---------------------- ------------

"No...why—" Ron was seriously panicking as he staggered blindly around what it seemed to be a room filled with stuffed toys, "Lupin, why is this happening again? We're— we're back!"

His last words sent a cold chill down Lupin's spine as he nervously adjusted his collar with forced calm. To be honest, he had never been this scared in his life before, and even as he tried not to look into those fake, plastic eyes sewed tight onto the party of little stuffed friends surrounding the never-ending room, he still couldn't shake off the feeling that he and Ron were being watched.

At this point Lupin might have thought that the Ministry had gone quite insane. Who would place a thousand or so dolls, in which all of whom beaming a mischievous smile, into a room with nothing but walls anyway? This gave Lupin an appearance of a maze, except that the walls were all lined up with fluffy cottons wearing clothes, and that the room was dark. Remarkably dark, correct that.

If fact, the room (if it was even a _room_ at all) was so dark that Lupin and Ron could hardly see even with their wand lights out.

They have been walking aimlessly for almost fifteen minutes, yet for some reason (Ron had no trouble freaking out about this), was that every time when they thought they had successfully crossed through the maze, they actually ended up back at the starting point. Ron confirmed this by spotting that odd-looking teddy bear with jagged teeth looming right beside him six times in a row.

When he had, yet again, saw the bear the seventh time, Ron had declared aloud that they should just perhaps, go back the way they had come.

The problem was that they had no idea how they ended up here in the first place.

"...But weren't we walking with Harry just then?" Ron asked in a quivering whisper as sixteen dolls cracked their permanent ominous grin at him from behind, "I mean...it— doesn't it sound odd that the next minute we are just standing here, in a room we've never even been to?"

"I suppose so," sighed Lupin, sitting himself down on the floor and leaning his back against a giant stuffed cat. The doll gave a cute squeak and Lupin quickly leaped up again, staring at it.

"Ha-ha...funny eh? We've clearly exceeded our required age to be scared of dolls, but now fifteen-year-old doesn't quite make a difference," Ron gave weak, unsuccessful laugh as he locked his eyes uneasily on the dolls. They seemed to be staring at them more than ever.

"Hey," said Lupin, as he absentmindedly examined a scarecrow-shaped stuffed toy with glossy, glossy blue pupils stuck to its head, "Isn't there a Muggle movie about this doll which got cursed or something and started killing—"

"Childplay," grunted Ron immediately, glaring accusingly at Lupin, "I know, it's a horror movie, Harry told me once about it. And unless your brain has malfunctioned, I don't think this particular topic we're discussing will ever help us solve the crap around here. In fact this'll just make things worse!" He jumped and yelped as a stray doll hand brushed his ankle by accident.

Holding onto his desire to laugh, Lupin kept on a straight face and said, "Oh sorry, never knew you'd get this frightened. Yet, you know full well that there are no such things as killer dolls."

"Oh? Why are you so sure?" Ron muttered, clearly avoiding a small mountain of stacked dolls as he walked over to stand close to Lupin, perhaps for a feeling of safety, "It's not the Muggle logic we're talking about here. Magic does not need logic."

Lupin took a sideway glance at the red-haired boy. "It contains logic, Ron," he said, and Ron looked at him, confused, "It may seem bizarre, but it was said that even magic is part of the law of chemistry and physics..."

"Wait...chemistry and physics..." muttered Ron, somehow forgetting the hideous looks of those stuffed toys and aimed a little kick at one red-haired doll in a nice, checker-boxed dress, "I think I've heard of them before...some kind of Muggle-related stuff—"

"Chemistry is the study of chemical interactions and energy, while physics is the concept that deals with mass, energy, force etc," Lupin cut in, saying this short speech as though he had memorized it off by heart, "Yeah, something like that. You guys won't need to learn these Muggle sciences. Anyway, magic is somehow related to them...for example—"

Clack clack clack clack clack clack...CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK——

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiizzz.

"Um, did you hear that?" Ron's voice had gone from his strong tone immediately into a squeaking whisper. Lupin was cut dead off from his lecture and stood still, listening at every possible sound that issued from among the walls, the dolls, anywhere. Expect there was none.

Lupin was about to say something again when another soft sound, as quiet as rustling wind, took him entirely by surprise and his whole body tensed up immediately. The sound was coming from behind Lupin, and he didn't think he even dared to look.

Wiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzz. Like mechanical strings winding...from inside a doll.

It was about a brisk of a second before Lupin knew what would be coming and quickly pulled Ron down with him. Something whisked heavily pass just inches above Ron's head before stabbing itself onto the very piece of wall not conquered by dolls.

Lupin looked up and saw that it was a butcher's knife.

Lupin turned his head and stared at the attacker, or rather, future attackers, for thousands of red, glowing dots were staring back at them from the dark, illuminating the scene ever so slightly that all Lupin could see were faint shades of smiling mouths right below their flaming eyes. The doll who threw the butcher's knife seemed to stand out the most, for the checker-dressed figure was the one Ron had, unfortunately, kicked. Underneath her illuminated eyes, she wore the biggest smile among all others, yet Lupin and Ron could still tell that she was mad...perhaps even furious.

Surprisingly enough, there wasn't much noise, despite the soft shuffling of fabric against fabric as the dolls climbed clumsily over one another toward the two uninvited guests. Occasionally there would be several soft whizzing sounds that issued from among those dolls as the strings on their back wind and unwind to assist their ridiculously staggered pace.

Neither Ron nor Lupin knew who screamed first, yet they were already twenty meters apart from the 'living dead' and wouldn't mind to keep on going. The two of them tore blindly across the passageways still filled full with dolls, in which each one of them would turn their heads in their direction as they sped pass. Unfortunately, those two didn't see their eyes lit up into a color of flaming red.

"This—this is— INSANE, MAN, INSANE!!!" Ron didn't seem to care about his loudness, for he was currently screaming as loud as he could while he tried to gasp for breath between words as he ran, "Oh ho ho, AND YOU SAID THEY WON'T COME TO LIFE! YOU SAID _THEY WON'T COME TO LIFE, LUPIN!!_"

Yet Lupin was in no mood for debates. Escape was the only thing in his mind right now, and when Ron was still bellowing about how stupid chemistry and physics were, the only thing Lupin could manage to yell between his gasping breathes were the words he rarely used, "JUST SHUT UP, RON, SHUT _UP_!!!"

_A/N:_ Yes? LOL :D Anyways if you want to read more about my made up theory of the relationship between physics, chemistry and magic, go to my home page. It'll be there, waiting to have eggs thrown at. XD

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By the time Harry saw a jet of green light flying towards him out of the corner of his eye, he knew that there would be no escaping it.

A sharp blow in the head caused him to scream in pain, and for a fleeting moment had thought wildly about the possibly of being hit by, let's say, a _solid_ jet of Avada Kedavra. But realization finally came through when he felt that the object knocking him down was nothing, or no one, other than his god father Sirius Black.

"Sirius!" Harry gasped in delight as he scrambled up to his feet while Sirius steadied himself up.

"Nice timing, eh?" his god father grinned, brushing dust from his robes. Another jet of light shot towards him and he avoided just in time, turning on the spot and bellowed to his affiliates, "Moody! You take care of those noob Death Eaters, I'll take Harry away!" Grinning to himself, he pulled Harry by the sleeve and darted with him all the way further down the hall.

"Hey, Sirius," Harry panted while he ran, his heart pounding with relief and excitement, "I'm really glad you're okay! Look, I...I'm sorry I'm such a moron...I should have listened to Hermione..."

"True, you should have," said Sirius, though his tone didn't have a trace of anger in it, "In fact, you should just forget this crap right away Harry, cause we still have something way more important to do." He grinned yet again.

Yet Harry still didn't seem to have cheered up, "The others and I are supposed to be walking together, but I think we got separated half way through a hallway. I encountered Orochimaru, as you guys might have spotted him as well, yet have no sign of the rest..."

"Don't worry," Sirius said, "We found Hermione, Luna, and Neville. Now only four more to go."

"You did?" Harry snapped his head back at him, once again with a trace of relief on his features, "How are they? Are they all right?"

"More than all right," Sirius beamed, "When we arrived, they have already taken out the three Death Eaters fighting them. A few months worth of training finally paid off."

"Yeah," said Harry, smiling more to himself than to Sirius. It seemed that he had make the right choice; getting all into these 'illegal' troubles just to get all his beloved friends ready for situations like this—

A shriek sounded from the other end of the long hall and immediately Harry recognized the voice as Ron's. Almost instantly, his muscles tensed and he ran forward as fast as he could while yelling his friend's name, "Ron! RON!"

His call was answered by another scream. Having a feeling that Ron was too frightened to actually use modern words to communicate, Harry pulled out his wand as he ran, expecting to worse to come.

It turned out that he didn't expect what he had expected, for the first thing that came to his mind when he saw the objects took shape on the faraway horizon, was _Childplay_. Or even the mutated version of the movie Childplay, who knows. Anyways, Harry had never seen anything like this, and this was mainly the point. In front of the army of stuffed toys, running desperately, were unmistakably Lupin and Ron. Harry wondered why they didn't thought of using their wands.

"Dolls?!" Beside him, Sirius gasped in amazement. Harry didn't need him to clarify this point. He pointed his wand at one of the dolls trying to cut Ron's ankle with a knife and yelled, "Stupefy!"

The doll shook and fell back, completely limped, like the way it should be. Sirius helped fight them off by burning them with fire with his wand. Lupin saw it coming and ducked. The dolls behind him gave an unusually high-pitched shriek and were soon dissolved into ash.

Until he reached Sirius Lupin stopped, and reached out his wand to fight back the remaining evil toys.

"Why didn't you use it in the first place?" Sirius called through all the shrieking noise while trying to aim a shot at a somehow headless bear stalking blindly towards them with a piece of iron pipe in its hand.

Lupin glared at him, "Well, why don't YOU try being chased by an army of mutated dolls and see if you can find enough time to pull out your wand while they are one inch from you? It would really clarify things for some people!"

Sirius was so amused at Lupin's rotten mood than he actually laughed. Harry though, even seemed to have cared much for his rarely revealed anger, for seeing a particular horror movie come to life wasn't exactly an experience people would like to encounter.

By the time Harry had taken out thirty of them, and in which thousands more were coming to aid, Ron had already approached Harry (having been delayed due to the fact of certain fluffed bunnies in a nurse hat holding gigantic needles, trying to stab him in the thigh) and had already started to fight them off with spells as well.

Unfortunately, the situation was getting worse, for the dolls seemed to be streaming out of a toy factory instead of inside a limited space of a room. By then, even Sirius had stopped laughing, and was fighting desperately, perhaps a little afraid at the mass of the total number of dolls. Further more, Harry had a feeling that the dolls had a change of plan and were trying to attack them from all sides.

Sure enough, they had started to edge towards the walls for a way around. Cursing loudly, Harry shot jinxes and copied Sirius by sending out flames to burn them. They crumbled, yet more scrambled over to join the rear.

"Look, we're loosing— loosing to a bunch of stuffed toys!" Ron yelled hopelessly. "Let's just retreat," Sirius suggested cautiously, stealing a quick glance at the way back, "We've seen other passageways through this particular hall. They might lead to somewhere that makes more sense."

"_Nothing makes sense here_!" Ron yelled again and he took a surprised step back as two twin dolls with scalpels jumped up in attempt to cut his face, "LOOK, JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!"

With that he ran, and the others didn't stop to argue as they followed suit. Loud tinklings of mechanic sound and childish, high-pitched giggles and screams issued from the toys' structures echoed around the hallways as their eyes glowed bright-scarlet and gave chase, waving their unique, yet not so unique weapons around and around with enthusiasm.

----------- ------------------------------ ------------------------- ------------------------- ---------

The only sounds that seemed to echo around here were their footsteps and breathing— even breathing— when Jiraiya and Tsunade entered the room. A room that looked remarkably like the stadium of the Chuunin Exam.

Tsunade glanced, slowly, down towards the center of the hollow room and saw a platform with an ancient archway— accompanying a piece of hanging, slightly fluttering veil— perched dangerously on top, as though a small gust of wind ought to be strong enough to topple it over. For some reason, an unusual cold chill ran down Tsunade's spine as she stared at it. An indescribable feeling crept up on her as she carefully descended the stone steps towards the mystical thing. The echoing of her feet against stone continued. Jiraiya simply fallowed, perhaps pulled by the very same feeling Tsunade experienced. Soon they were standing beside it, gazing up, for who knew how long.

"Hey, I wonder why the veil is moving...when there's no wind..." Jiraiya murmured, rather absentmindedly with his eyes still glued to the archway, "...Do you think there's a fan or somethin' here...?"

Tsunade made a non-verbal reply and continued to gaze at it. The sagging weight of Ginny didn't appear to have any affect on her at all. In fact, her unconscious form slowly slipped downwards— as Tsunade had almost entirely dismissed the consciousness of using strength to support her weight— and slid down with a soft thud onto the stone floor.

"...Hey...let's go in...let's go through that veil..." Jiraiya didn't seem to know he was even talking.

This time Tsunade shrugged and didn't reply, yet she made no attempted move to go through the fluttering veil.

"Come on...let's go in..." Jiraiya urged, almost in a sleepy tone, yet with eyes still locked firmly on the ancient structure, "Let's go through...they're...calling..."

Tsunade didn't pay attention. In fact, she seemed to be uninterested in anything except for the tempting object standing slightly above her, and felt that she could just stand there and stare at it as long as time went. That was, until she felt pain like fire on her back and screamed.

Jiraiya gasped and came back to reality, where he saw in horror that his comrade was attacked by a curse that acted remarkably like a bullet from a revolver. His eyes automatically shifted to the entrance above, where Death Eaters were already speeding down the steps and firing curses at them both. Jiraiya ducked three of them and pulled the wincing Tsunade and Ginny aside.

"Jeeze, how the hell could you get the first one and miss the other!" Jiraiya could hear a Death Eater yelling at another through the small explosions made by the spells, "You could've taken them both out so we needn't waste time!"

The other Death Eater replied something in which Jiraiya couldn't hear, for a curse hit the wall beside him and exploded, shattering the two of them with fragments of rocks and debris.

Jiraiya took a quick glance at Tsunade; she was healing herself— though rather painfully— by pressing her hand to the stomach. The bloody wound on her back was closing gradually.

"Can you manage?" Jiraiya asked in concern. Tsunade nodded, "It would be nice if you take care of them first...there's not much...I see six..." The boy nodded, laid Tsunade against the wall, checked that Ginny was in a comfortable position as well and crept out from their hiding place.

He was quickly spotted by the Death Eaters and curses were immediately being fired from their wands. Through flying dust and debris, Jiraiya dodged them with incredible speed, all the time aiming for their heads, and cracked some for their necks. Others didn't even see it coming.

The boy then was about to cast a Jutsu when something splashed onto him like cold water. He looked down at himself, confused, for his clothes were definitely dry. Jiraiya dismissed his doubts and tried to lift his hands against, except that this time it wouldn't move.

"What?" He tried to raise his arm, but it felt like all of his cells were made of concrete. Realization shot through him as he looked around and saw that one of Voldemort's followers was holding his wand high, pointing towards Jiraiya, as though he was grant the opportunity to command his whole physical feature.

With that the Death Eater grinned coldly form behind his mask, and swished his wand to the direction of the wall. Immediately, as though pulled by a piece of iron string, Jiraiya let out a yelp of surprise and was thrown headfirst into the wall, creating havoc with the impact as the wall broke apart. Then the Death Eater jerked his wand away, and Jiraiya's body followed suit, and was once again bashed into the same wall when Death Eater made the same direction with his wand. From a distance, Jiraiya could hear the cruel laughers from others.

Coughing and spitting out dust, Jiraiya staggered out from the hole he made in the wall and simply glared at the Death Eaters.

"That's cheating," he said, as blood dripped down from his forehead, "Oh well, I might do so as well."

With a shout of laugher, Jiraiya lunged himself into the air and ripped out a scroll from nowhere. While in the air, Jiraiya bit his thumb and wrote symbols on torn pieces of parchment with blood in a fraction of a second and shot them out from all corners. Feeling cautious, the Death Eaters glanced quickly around, trying to follow the seals as they flew to their correct position and stuck themselves firmly onto the stone ceiling above.

Instantly, weapons appeared all around the seals' selected area. Thousands of them, from kunai to katana, surrounded the Death Eaters from above, left and right, leaving them with no place to hide.

Some of them screamed in horror, Jiraiya recalled, yet it didn't quite matter, for most of them were too frightened to do anything when the weapons launched themselves forward anyway. Even though they were sworn enemies, Jiraiya still felt horrible for killing people. If he had a choice, he'd prefer not to, yet if he didn't strike the Death Eaters would, and it would be simply pointless to talk them through this. Once they aimed their destiny toward the dark, they would never see light again.

Jiraiya watch from above, crouching steadily on top of a wall decoration, at the destruction below. By the time a clock somewhere among a Muggle town struck ten, in which was one minute later, most of his enemies were either badly injured or dead.

When he had confirmed that the Death Eaters below would no longer be a threat to him and Tsunade, Jiraiya leaped down from the wall and landed silently on the messy ground. Tsunade poked her head from behind a fallen piece of wall and smiled, "See? I told you you could handle them. And for a brief second I even thought you were afraid!"

"Afraid? When did I say I was afraid?" Jiraiya scoffed as he brushed dust off his robes. He looked at the still fluttering veil and frowned, "Look, I think we'd better get out of here...or we might get distracted again— what the!" Jiraiya leapt away as a kunai stabbed itself onto the ground, where Jiraiya was standing a second ago. His eyes searched the clearing suspiciously as the word 'ninjas' came into his mind almost instantly.

"Jiraiya! Are you all right?" Tsunade had clearly seen the kunai as well, and she was standing up at once, despite the pain on her back.

They could hear sandals striding across the debris on the floor, and no sooner or later rain ninjas were already filing silently through the door. Some of them even melted through walls but nevertheless, Jiraiya and Tsunade were instantly surrounded.

"Any ideas?" sighed Jiraiya. "I just wish the others wouldn't stumble across this room," replied Tsunade, eyeing the ninjas carefully, "I don't think even wizards can handle 15 Shinobi at once..."

"_Hey, aren't those the Sannins?_" one of the rain ninjas called through his mask, "_What does he want with them anyways?_"

"_He doesn't_," replied another, and Tsunade immediately recognized the voice belonged to Takahashi. Even from behind a mask, Tsunade could still tell that his expression was full of range. "_One of their bloody friends killed my teammate, as you've all heard about,_" Takahashi continued, his voice hostile and filled with anger, "_Wouldn't it be nice if we take them back to Amakage? He would certainly love to know who had killed his colleague._"

The female ANBU Yuurei, who happened to be crouching beside Takahashi, made no sound of agree or disagreement. She simply stared at Tsunade.

The two Sannins didn't know who had strike first, but soon a miniature Shinobi war had broke out between them, fifteen rain Shinobi against two of the strongest ninjas in Konoha, the fight was simply unpredictable. All sorts of Jutsu were used, illuminating the whole stadium-like room with a variety of colors and wonder. Any Japanese passing by might as well think they were as magnificent as fireworks. Hence the destruction, too, was magnificently severe. It would almost be impossible to not hear the crashing and yelling and Jutsu-calling noises all around the Department of Mysteries, even though the room they were concealed in was only one-hundredth of the entire underground system.

Harry and the others simply absorbed all the noise coming through. The small group had successfully escaped from the doll invasion and had met up with rest of the Order members, including Hermione, Neville, and Luna. All except Orochimaru, in which Tonks had explained he had ran off by himself, chasing after the remaining Death Eaters, desperate to shred them to pieces as well.

It was five minutes-passed when Harry heard the first crash coming from his right. A series of rumbling noise followed, preferably burning fire, and they were all convinced that it was the Sannins' doing.

"It might be Jiraiya and Tsunade," suggested Hermione, "Orochimaru went off that way, so it might not be him."

They left the debate at that and hurried on toward the deafening noise, though it turned out to be rather challenging, due to the fact that hallways in the Department didn't always end up with one exit. In fact, the current hallway they were walking in seemed to be so twisted and simply _wrong_ that the whole group doubted whether or not they were heading toward the right way.

"—Are we?" Ron questioned again for the third time in a row, when another precious five minutes had gone by like the wind and Harry had found himself losing drops of enthusiasm for every passing second. Neville seemed to have turned paler every time Ron stated his doubt, yet Luna, on the other hand as usual, appeared to be undisturbed. The Order members simply walked on, perhaps cautiously, glancing left and right at certain doorways to listen to any possible leads as to where the Sannins were.

It was a minute later when one of them called the whole party to halt. "I think is through this hallway," the Order member said with excitement, for he was only merely an adult, "Look! See that? Those lights at the very far end of the tunnel definitely match the crashing sounds. — (another crash, more like rock against rock, vibrated through the entire hallway) — See what I mean?" He released his hands from his ears after the deafening noise, looking proud.

Without another word, Harry sprinted into the hallways, desperate to get to get to the chaos beyond the end. He could hear Sirius yelling after him.

_It doesn't matter_, Harry thought, ignoring his Godfather's calls, _the sooner we find the Sannins and reunite the better. Voldemort hasn't shown up yet, which gives us the advantage to get the hell out of here before he does show up, which will certainly make things way more complicated..._

With one final determined leap he approached the bashed doorway. He had never seen anything like this in his life: in front of him was like the fierce battle field of the natural elements. He looked towards his left in awe, and spotted enemy Shinobi standing at the side of a water dragon that stretched from floor to ceiling, its liquid mouth drawn back into a snarl with it's tail slashing menacingly around the walls, causing water to splash all over the place, yet the Shinobi didn't seem to be affected by the wetness at all. Then to his right: raging swarms of fire in the shape of wolves walked around delicately, carefully, unpredictable as to when they would all strike together as one, with Tsunade standing among them like an actual commander. Their pupil-less eyes were locked into the enemy with such fierceness that Harry himself experienced a sudden attempt to shudder.

Jiraiya was crouching at Tsunade's side, casting an earth barrier around Ginny in case things got out of hand. "How much longer can you hold?" he asked, casting a look at Tsunade. She returned his glance, "As long as this Jutsu can stand. I know their Jutsu has the advantage of vanquishing mine, and I've never really got the hang of electrical Jutsu either."

With a wave of her arm, the wolves leaped forward and scattered, speeding in trails of fire toward the rippling dragon. Assuming that the wolves would be extinguished by the mass of water, Harry was extremely surprised to see them leaped up accurately as the dragon's tail slashed down, avoiding harm. They served around and rocketed straight for the rain ninjas, in which some of them reacted in surprise by shielding their heads with their raised arms, and was engulfed instantly with burning flames. Slightly burned yet unharmed, one of them gave an angry roar and pushed his arms out in a commanding motion.

With droplets of water hurling everywhere, the dragon raised itself and dropped with break-neck speed straight for the slightly startled Tsunade. The impact would certainly be greater than that of the raging tsunami, for the walls shook ominously and the veil fluttered as wild as ever when three-thousand kilograms worth of water splashed down onto the surface.

Harry had to save himself of harm by hiding behind the wall. He could feel the great rumbling impact of the water hitting it and thought for a second that the wall might collapse. Fortunately it didn't, and his friends, who had just caught up with him, had to adjust themselves in order not to get thrown off balance.

"What the bloody hell's that?" Ron gasped as he lost his footing and slammed onto the wall, "Don't tell me it's an earthquake!"

"It's worse than an earthquake, Ron," Harry said, peering out carefully from behind his hiding place. As he had expected, the place was soaking wet. Tsunade down below was coughing out water, yet there was no sign of visible damage on her. Jiraiya and Ginny were okay too, the shield had protected her well and she was seen as dry as ever, compared to Jiraiya, who was currently complaining loudly how unfair of those Rain Shinobi were while squeezing out water from his soaked robes.

"So what are we planning to do? Just leave them alone like that?" questioned Hermione.

"But we can see more of their fabulous things!" Luna chirped, apparently delighted about the gracious water dragon.

"And leave them there to get hurt?" Ron snapped, yet his eyes lingered mostly on his sister's form, "Look, we've got to help."

Harry wouldn't need clarification for that. He knew that standing there doing nothing wasn't one of his options. He snatched out his wands and aimed a shot at one of the Shinobi. The speeding red light would surely be noticeable, yet before the Shinobi could react any further, he was shot full in the chest and went immediately limp, falling with a splash onto the floor. Clearly, almost none of them had expected intruders.

As their comrade fell, the others were instantly alarmed and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Harry!" Tsunade quickly glanced up, wide eyed with surprise as she spotted Harry and his friends with ease, "What the _hell _are you doing?! Don't come near!"

"It's not like we're going to stand here and do nothing," Harry called back as he and his friends jumped down from the stone steps, "Look, I know you're mad, Tsunade, but you will not convince us to stay back."

Tsunade wasn't mad, she was furious. And Jiraiya knew full well that if Harry was lucky, he would just be suffering a hard slap in the face. Surprisingly, he was luckier than that; not only had Tsunade managed to control her anger, she had also ended this argument with a sigh after certain amount of seconds.

"...Fine. Do whatever you want. Just don't die in the process."

"Don't worry, we won't," Harry said, smirking as he held his wand out at ready.

As though his raised wand was a sign of challenge, the Rain Shinobi reappeared by the high walls, all seemed to be having calculating looks as they observed the newly-arrivals closely.

"_Kids!_" Takahashi let out a bark of laugher and jabbed his kunai towards the teenagers with dignity, "_And wizards too...such pitiful races. Perhaps I shouldn't have hoped for too much._"

Even though Harry couldn't understand a word he was saying, he was quite sure that whatever he was trying to express wouldn't be anything good.

"_Is that so?_" Tsunade called back as she shifted herself into a firm battle position, "_What about your close friend Takeyari? Who was it that caused him to give up his life?_"

At this point Takahashi's young features turned into something deadlier than a scowl. "_So what if he was killed off by a wizard, huh?_" he spat out harshly, almost insanely, as the kunai held in his gloved hand shook, "_So what if? It's not the matter of race, it all counts for experience! So let's just say that bastard got lucky, SO WHAT? THOSE KIDS AREN'T EVEN QUALIFIED TO FIGHT!_"

He jumped and shot through the air in break neck speed. Tsunade almost doubled back when she figured out that he was charging towards her and their weapons met with a clash. Sparks flew out and the sound of scratching metal screeched Tsunade's ears as she was being pushed backwards by the force of the young ANBU. She was about to knock Takahashi's weapon away when she saw something that caused her heart to skip a frightening beat.

Something glinted through the eye hole of Takahashi's mask, and the girl as quite convinced that it did not come from the water Jutsu they had previously used against her.

As though a swarm of cold ants had just ran down her spine, Tsunade flooded herself with memories that she wished would remain in their deepest depths for as long as she lived. In fact, it was barely a year ago when her younger brother died, and Tsunade could still relive the time in which she had so constantly tasted salty tears in her mouth that she had gotten rather irritated and disgusted by it.

At this point she immediately got irritated, though not because of the taste of tears, for there weren't any right now; she had, through with difficulty, gotten over with the lost. She was irritated by Takahashi's mask, a lifeless piece of carving that served the purpose of hiding one's identity as well as any visible— _unacceptable_, as analyzed— human emotions. A perfect way to reject support from others. In fact, Tsunade even doubted if he had ever taken his mask off in front of others before.

She let out a shout of resentment and with extraordinary strength for a girl, shoved Takahashi away from her. Taken by surprise, Takahashi completely lost his balance and hit the wall. The kunai slipped from his hand and dropped to the floor with an icy, echoing clank that made Takahashi shudder as though the sound had rang through his hollow heart.

The fact about being thrown away by a Kunoichi did not necessarily help soothe his current hazardous mood. With an outraged roar, perhaps even mixed with sadness and grief, the Rain Shinobi sprang to his feet and charged once again towards the ready Kunoichi. They clashed, sending out an ear-piercing sound wave like no other as though releasing all the indescribable emotions from within.

There were his eyes again, wet as though stained with streaks of tears, and Tsunade seemed to see it clearer than ever, even though the room was considerably dark. She wanted to say something, but didn't, and with a back flip sent Takahashi flying backwards. The ANBU did a summersault in the air and landed on the ground with both feet. With a determined push with his foot the ANBU sprang again, this completing Jutsu with complicated hand signs.

Through all the frantic battle sounds, from somewhere in the room, Harry was itching to help, yet for some reason he had a feeling that he shouldn't. Glancing up cautiously, he spotted the rest of the Rain Shinobi perched on top of the wall carvings, all doing nothing except to observe. One of them by the name of Yuurei to Harry's consciousness, seemed to be the most still of all. She was mask-less, and her sharp, hawk-like eyes were narrowed gravely—_ anxiousness?_— as they followed Takahashi's every movement. Another ANBU leaned in to whisper in her ear, with others listening closely. Yuurei was still for a moment, then she shook her head. The ANBU urged further, yet again she shook her head stubbornly. The others seemed to express some sort of frustration but argued no more. Harry turned his head back at the clashing noises between the two fighting ninjas, and took in all of what he had seen of those Shinobi sitting from above.

A sudden swirl of strong wind and with Jiraiya's warning of, "Brace yourselves!" Harry immediately registered to shield himself from any up-coming harm, yet Hermione was already ahead of him by casting a sturdy-shaped shield of bubble just when cracks were seen forming through walls. The next minute the sound of electrical lighting could be heard buzzing loudly, while the blinding flashes emitted were strong enough to illuminate the whole room.

The only time Harry was able to see clearly was when the electrical shocks faltered for less than a second, and through that second he had witnessed enough to know the general story: Tsunade was standing calmly in middle of howling winds, her hair flying everywhere. Yet she didn't seem to be disturbed or knocked off balance by the wind, perhaps to the fact that she was the one controlling it. Her fingers were still fixed in a hand seal with firm eyes locked right on her enemy. Tsunade opponent was simply surrounded by swirls of powerful sizzling lighting, occasionally sending out small static explosions emitted from who knew where. Harry could tell that either Jutsu were deadly, for they were already hard enough for Tsunade and Takahashi to keep them stable.

Both of them roared out, as though to signalize a battle cry and leaped at each other with all they got, their breath-taking Jutsu surging along forcefully at their wake. Tsunade eyed her opponent speeding nearer and nearer and her hand controlling the soul of the wind Jutsu tightened threatingly, as though acknowledging the enemy's power and would fight back no matter what the cause.

The very second before their Jutsu made contact with each other seemed to have suddenly stopped. Through that very second, Tsunade had automatically registered that something was wrong. Indeed, a flicker of shock was expressed in Takahashi's eyes through his ANBU mask and the next second something cracked, and he was thrown all the way back to the opposite wall with a cry of pain.

Tsunade was so surprised that her Jutsu faltered and vanished. Cries of rage would be heard from above and the sound of a particular vanishing Jutsu, and the next thing she knew, she was surrounded by the rest of the Rain Shinobi team, except that they weren't furious at her. Instead they were glaring at approaching people by the doorway that yet to make their appearance.

Without lifting the shield on purpose, Hermione, along with Harry and the others, were unable to take their eyes off the newcomers. Especially Harry, for a cold, cold chill had found its way through his whole body, and he was quite sure that it had nothing to do with the dying wind swirling softly around the room.

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I decided to stop here. Any sane person would choose to stop here xD I mean, this is like, the longest chapter I've written –successfully beating the record of the previous ones— and I think this chapter is actually long enough to stretch onto the next. Hope this would make up for the delay though, and thanks to anyone who still sticks to this lagging story! I love you all!


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